Corporate diversification has received much attention from academics and management practitioners for over 30 years. Major work has been dedicated to determining if diversification creates or destroys a firm’s value across industries. This study examines the effect of corporate diversification on firm performance using a relatively homogenous sample of 70 publicly listed real estate companies in Hong Kong. Previous studies on the diversification of real estate companies or REITs mainly focused on diversification within real estate holdings across countries or asset types. This study contributes to the literature by examining real estate companies diversifying into other industries and assessing their performance from 2005 through 2010. The empirical findings indicated that Hong Kong real estate firms that chose to diversify into other industries performed better than those solely focused in real estate. Since the decision to diversify may be endogenous, the author used a number of estimation procedures to control for potential endogeneity. The results were robust in that the diversification effect remained positive and significant. Another contribution of this thesis is that it examined the impact of cash holdings on firm value and analyzed the value of cash for real estate companies and how corporate diversification affects the level of cash holdings. The author found that firms with larger cash reserves experienced decreases in their value. This result was consistent with the agency costs of free cash flows in that greater shareholder rights are associated with lower cash holdings. In addition, the author found that diversified firms hold less cash than their focused competitors. The findings supported the prediction of the internal capital market hypothesis that diversified firms are more efficient in allocating resources through internal capital markets and, therefore, reduce their need for large cash holdings. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-147).

Mémoire (M.E.R.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1983. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 1983. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-290).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Jacobs University Bremen, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A & M University, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-129).

This dissertation proposes an alternative perspective for studying the relationship between corporate performance and diversification. Extensive research into the relationship between diversification and economic performance has been conducted using two different perspectives. One perspective, pursued mainly by industrial organization economists, examined the effect that a firm's level (or degree) of diversity had on its performance. A second perspective, utilized by strategic management researchers, uses Rumelt's (1974) notion of product-market relatedness to explain performance differences among diversified firms. Rumelt (1974) hypothesized that firms which diversify into areas related to the original business by either products or markets would financially outperform those firms that diversify into areas unrelated (in a product or market sense) to the original business. Blackburn and Shrader (1990, pg. 1) argue that "a consensus seems to be forming that related corporate acquisitions are superior to unrelated acquisitions." This consensus view is not without its critics, however. Other research results (e.g. Barton, 1988) suggest that unrelated acquisitions need not produce inferior performance. This debate suggests that further research into the nature of the relationship between corporate diversification and its financial performance may be productive, especially if new ways of examining it can be devised. An alternative perspective for studying the relationship between corporate performance and diversification is proposed. Other dimensions of relatedness, such as the strategic similarity between a corporation's business units, may provide alternative means of defining relatedness. It will be argued that a redefinition of relatedness will prove valuable in expanding our ability to predict the effect corporate diversification strategy has on corporate performance. / Ph. D.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Thesis (MDevF (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Portfolio diversification in capital markets is an accepted investment strategy. On the other hand corporate diversification has drawn many opponents especially agency theorists who argue that executives must not diversify their firms. Instead, they must pay out the ‘free cash flows’ used to make acquisitions as dividends so that shareholders can diversify on their own. The ‘conglomerate discount’ of diversified firms in stock markets confirmed this argument and compelled many firms to refocus by selling-off non-core units from the 1980s. Through a case study of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed Delta Corporation Limited which spun-off its unrelated subsidiaries to focus on its core cold beverages business in 2001, this thesis investigates if by refocusing conglomerates improve shareholders’ returns. Using inflation adjusted share returns and factoring in risk by adopting the Sharpe index, the study results show that Delta underperformed the market and its peers as a diversified conglomerate but outperformed both benchmarks after refocusing. The study also argues that market failures in Zimbabwe, in particularly the foreign exchange and agriculture markets, compelled firms to divert from their core strategies in order to survive hyperinflation. It concludes by affirming the consensus in corporate diversification research that conglomerates are an inefficient structure for growing shareholders’ returns but may indeed be the default corporate strategy in developing economies frequently marred by market imperfections and failures.

This thesis is a contribution to our understanding of business groups in the small busi-ness sector. Specifically, its aim is to verify to what extent the consideration of entrepre-neurial processes can advance our understanding of this phenomenon. A ‘business group’ is a set of companies which are legally distinct but belong to the same person or people. Despite the significant presence of business groups in the small business sector, most of the literature on business groups addresses large groups. This study demonstrates that the available theories of business groups – the financial and the diversification theories – are not able to explain the presence and characteristics of business groups in the small business sector. Given the little work done on the issue, the research strategy involves the use of both, quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are used to test propositions deduced from available models of business groups; qualitative methods, based on case studies and direct interviews, are used to get new insights about the phenomenon and develop theoretical propositions. Quantitative analyses refer to the population of Italian business groups; case studies and interviews refer to a sample of business groups in the Marche region (Italy). The business group is an organizational form used by portfolio entrepreneurs to grow and diversify the businesses under their control. By using cross sectional and longitudinal analyses this study shows that in the small business sector diversification is a substitute strategy for growth in the original business. Moreover, this study demonstrates that the diversification theory is not able to explain the setting up of a business group as in most cases the degree of diversification observed in small groups is very low. The thesis demonstrates that entrepreneurial processes associated with the exploitation of new business opportunities by portfolio entrepreneurs play a crucial role in explaining the formation and characteristics of business groups. The start-up phase is critical for the success of a new business as it requires complete dedication of time and attention by the entrepreneur to continuously adjust the planned actions to the unforeseen events and un-predictable contingencies that are typical of this phase. The legal autonomy granted to the new venture helps focus resources and monitor results. In addition to this and more than anything else, legal autonomy allows entrepreneurs to modify the ownership structure of the new business and give minority shares to people involved in the start-up. The financial explanation of business groups stresses the importance of legal autonomy as a way for manipulating the ownership structure of new businesses, to raise outside equity. The thesis demonstrates that the causal relationship is the opposite of that hypothesised by the financial explanation: it is not so much the aim of raising outside equity that determines the involvement of external shareholders as the need to involve and motivate people in the start up of the new business that induces entrepreneurs to sell minority shares in it, thus enlarging the entrepreneurial team. By involving other people in the start-up of new ventures, portfolio entrepreneurs enhance their ability to enter new businesses while retaining ownership and control of the ones already established. The empirical analysis revealed the existence of three different patterns: joint venture with established entrepreneurs, employee involvement and intrapreneurship. The first is when new ventures are set up with other established entrepreneurs. The second is when the entrepreneur gives a share of the new company to an employee to secure his/her involvement in the start-up of a new venture (employee involvement). The third is when the new business is established as a result of the inspiration of an ‘intrapreneurial’ employee who takes major responsibility for the development of the business. As well as the discovery and analysis of these three forms, the thesis provides a theoretical explanation of entrepreneurial team development in business groups, based on the problems faced by portfolio entrepreneurs in allocating time and attention between the running of established businesses and the exploitation of new business opportunities. By integrating the latter explanation with other models of business groups the thesis provides a more general framework for understanding the formation and dynamics of business groups in the small business sector. The thesis also provides contributions to explain the formation and dynamics of entrepreneurial teams in a multi business context and in situations where there is a ‘dominant’ or ‘lead’ entrepreneur and one or more ‘associate’ or ‘sub’ entrepreneurs. Studying the formation and evolution of business groups poses several methodological problems, as groups are complex systems, characterised by the presence of several companies, different architectural structures and a multi-business context. The thesis provides methodological contributions on the ways to represent the current structure of business groups and on how to analyse their evolution over time.