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Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

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  • Nicholas Bloom

    () (Department of Economics, Stanford University)

  • Raffaella Sadun

    () (Harvard Business School, Strategy Unit)

  • John Van Reenen

    () (Department of Economics, London School of Economics)

Abstract

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical lacuna we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms - including their decentralization decisions - across a large range of industries and countries. In this paper we investigate whether greater product market competition increases decentralization. For example, tougher competition may make local manager's information more valuable, as delays to decisions become more costly. Since globalization and liberalization have increased the competitiveness of product markets, one explanation for the trend towards decentralization could be increased competition. Of course there are a range of other factors that may also be at play, including human capital, information and communication technology, culture and industrial composition. To tackle these issues we collected detailed information on the internal organization of firms across nations. The few datasets that exist are either from a single industry or (at best) across many firms in a single country . We analyze data on almost 4,000 firms across twelve countries in Europe, North America and Asia. We find that competition does indeed seem to foster greater decentralization.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Harvard Business School in its series Harvard Business School Working Papers with number 10-052.

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Length: 12 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:10-052

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  1. Howitt, Peter & Griffith, Rachel & Aghion, Philippe & Blundell, Richard & Bloom, Nick, 2005. "Competition and Innovation: An Inverted-U Relationship," Scholarly Articles 4481507, Harvard University Department of Economics.
  2. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun, 2012. "The Organization of Firms Across Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1663-1705.
  3. Garicano, Luis & Hubbard, Thomas N, 2007. "Managerial Leverage Is Limited by the Extent of the Market: Hierarchies, Specialization, and the Utilization of Lawyers' Human Capital," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-43, February.
  4. Nick Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2006. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp0716, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  5. Guadalupe, Maria & Wulf, Julie, 2009. "The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 7253, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  6. D, Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen & Fabrizzio Zilibotti, 2006. "Technology, Information and the Decentralization of the Firm," Working Papers 2006-12, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique.
  7. Jakub Kastl & David Martimort & Salvatore Piccolo, 2008. "Delegation and R&D Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Italy," 2008 Meeting Papers 1095, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  8. Massimo G. Colombo & Marco Delmastro, 2004. "Delegation of Authority In Business Organizations: An Empirical Test," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 53-80, 03.
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Cited by:
  1. Junichiro Ishida, 2012. "Promotion without Commitment: Signaling, Time Inconsistency and Decentralization of the Firm," ISER Discussion Paper 0843, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
  2. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Human Resource Management and Productivity," NBER Working Papers 16019, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Oriana Bandiera & Iwan Baranky & Imran Rasul, 2011. "Field Experiments with Firms," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 028, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
  4. Ralf Martin & Mirabelle Muûls & Ulrich J. Wagner & Laure B. de Preux, 2012. "Industry Compensation Under Relocation Risk: A Firm-Level Analysis of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," CEP Discussion Papers dp1150, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  5. Laura Alfaro & Harald Fadinger & Andrew Newman & Paola Conconi, . "Trade Policy and Firm Boundaries," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/98544, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
  6. Masazumi Hattori & Kohei Shintani & Hirofumi Uchida, 2012. "Authority and Soft Information Production within a Bank Organization," IMES Discussion Paper Series 12-E-07, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
  7. Marin, Dalia, 2012. "The Theory of the Firm goes Global," CEPR Discussion Papers 8880, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Aloña Martiarena, 2012. "Mobility of Skills and Ideas," DRUID Working Papers 12-04, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
  9. repec:eca:wpaper:2013/58671 is not listed on IDEAS
  10. Zhou, Jun, 2012. "Cartel Duration and Endogenous Private Monitoring and Communication: An Instrumental Variables Approach," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 369, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
  11. repec:eca:wpaper:2013/96922 is not listed on IDEAS

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