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Industry concentration, excess returns and innovation in Australia

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  • David R. Gallagher
  • Katja Ignatieva
  • James McCulloch
  • Henk Berkman

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="acfi12074-abs-0001"> This paper examines market concentration and stock returns on the Australian Securities Exchange. We find that dominant companies operating in concentrated industries in Australia are able to generate significant risk-adjusted excess stock returns. Our results for Australian data are opposite to that found by Hou and Robinson (2006) for United States market data. Hou and Robinson reason that United States firms which operate in concentrated industries are insulated from competitive pressures, have lower levels of innovation (Arrow, 1962) and therefore experience lower profitability and stock returns. By contrast, the Australian data show a significant and positive relationship between concentration and innovation expenditure. Therefore, the excess stock returns of dominant companies in Australia are consistent with previous research linking innovation expenditure with excess stock returns. We hypothesize that the apparent contradiction of our results compared with Hou and Robinson (2006) for the United States market is resolved by an examination of the differences in size and competition in United States and Australian industries and the consequent differential ability of dominant companies in the two countries to generate monopoly rents and invest in ‘Schumpeterian’ (Schumpeter, 1942) innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • David R. Gallagher & Katja Ignatieva & James McCulloch & Henk Berkman, 2015. "Industry concentration, excess returns and innovation in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(2), pages 443-466, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:55:y:2015:i:2:p:443-466
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    Cited by:

    1. Nidhi Kaicker & Radhika Aggarwal, 2023. "Market Structure and Firm Level Returns: The Indian Evidence," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 59-69, June.
    2. Raghavan J. Iyengar & Malavika Sundararajan, 2019. "Is Firm Innovation Associated With Corporate Governance?," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-24, April.
    3. Nawar Hashem & Larry Su, 2019. "Internationalization and the Cross-section of Stock Returns: Evidence from Multinational Corporations Publicly Listed in the U.K," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 18(3), pages 245-263, December.
    4. Doowon Ryu & Doojin Ryu & Joon Ho Hwang, 2017. "Corporate governance, product-market competition, and stock returns: evidence from the Korean market," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(1), pages 50-91, April.
    5. Yu, Miao & Hu, Xiaolu & Zhong, Angel, 2023. "Trade links and return predictability: The Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Scott Li & James Refalo & Jong-Hwan Yi, 2025. "Industry classification, industry concentration, and stock returns," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 39(3), pages 337-363, September.
    7. Margaret K. McKeehan & George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Balancing Act: Weighing the Factors Affecting the Taxation of Capital Income in a Small Open Economy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 12, pages 347-396, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Thu A. T. Pham, 2018. "Industry Concentration, Firm Efficiency and Average Stock Returns: Evidence from Australia," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 25(3), pages 221-247, September.
    9. Li, Scott & Liu, Qianqiu & Refalo, James, 2020. "Industry classification, product market competition, and firm characteristics," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    10. Yonghong Ma & Huili Ni & Xiaomeng Yang & Lingkai Kong & Chunmei Liu, 2023. "Government subsidies and total factor productivity of enterprises: a life cycle perspective," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(1), pages 153-188, April.
    11. Jinming Zheng & Taeyeon Oh & Geoff Dickson & David P. Hedlund & Tao Zhong & Veerle De Bosscher, 2024. "Market Share Instability and Market Concentration: A Sport/Discipline-Specific Study of the Summer Olympic Games 1992–2020," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, May.
    12. Nawar Hashem & Larry Su, 2015. "Industry Concentration and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 769-785, August.
    13. Amit Pandey & Anil Kumar Sharma, 2023. "Effect of Index Concentration on Index Volatility and Performance," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(3), pages 559-585, September.
    14. Mouna Abdelhedi-Zouch & Achraf Ghorbel, 2016. "Islamic and conventional bank market value: Manager behavior and investor sentiment," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1164010-116, December.

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