IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v43y2017icp316-339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does it really matter how a firm diversifies? Assets-in-place diversification versus growth options diversification

Author

Listed:
  • de Andrés, Pablo
  • de la Fuente, Gabriel
  • Velasco, Pilar

Abstract

This study analyses whether the effect of corporate diversification on a firm's market value depends on how this strategy is implemented. According to the real options approach, two opposite diversification strategies may be implemented: one based on fully exercising available options (assets-in-place diversification) and the other aimed at seeding new opportunities for future growth in multiple businesses (growth options diversification). We propose an index to measure these two diversification patterns and we explore their impact on firm market value for a sample of U.S. firms during 1998–2014. We find that as a firm's diversification strategy shifts towards a growth options pattern, it becomes a more value-enhancing strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • de Andrés, Pablo & de la Fuente, Gabriel & Velasco, Pilar, 2017. "Does it really matter how a firm diversifies? Assets-in-place diversification versus growth options diversification," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 316-339.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:43:y:2017:i:c:p:316-339
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119917300640
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xi He, 2012. "Two Sides of a Coin: Endogenous and Exogenous Effects of Corporate Diversification on Firm Value," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 375-397, December.
    2. Stowe, John D. & Xing, Xuejing, 2006. "Can growth opportunities explain the diversification discount?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 783-796, September.
    3. Bai, Gang & Elyasiani, Elyas, 2013. "Bank stability and managerial compensation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 799-813.
    4. Yakov Amihud & Baruch Lev, 1981. "Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(2), pages 605-617, Autumn.
    5. Jacquemin, Alexis P & Berry, Charles H, 1979. "Entropy Measure of Diversification and Corporate Growth," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 359-369, June.
    6. de Andrés, Pablo & de la Fuente, Gabriel & Velasco, Pilar, 2016. "Are real options a missing piece in the diversification-value puzzle?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 261-271.
    7. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Louca, Christodoulos & Petrou, Andreas P., 2016. "Organizational learning and corporate diversification performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3270-3284.
    8. Raghuram Rajan & Henri Servaes & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 35-80, February.
    9. N. Venkatraman & John E. Prescott, 1990. "Environment‐strategy coalignment: An empirical test of its performance implications," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, January.
    10. Trigeorgis, Lenos & Lambertides, Neophytos, 2014. "The Role of Growth Options in Explaining Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 749-771, June.
    11. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    12. Fauver, Larry & Houston, Joel & Naranjo, Andy, 2003. "Capital Market Development, International Integration, Legal Systems, and the Value of Corporate Diversification: A Cross-Country Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 135-158, March.
    13. Gönül Çolak, 2010. "Diversification, Refocusing and Firm Value," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 16(3), pages 422-448, June.
    14. Mark Holder & Aiwu Zhao, 2015. "Value exploration and materialization in diversification strategies," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 175-213, July.
    15. Hoechle, Daniel & Schmid, Markus & Walter, Ingo & Yermack, David, 2012. "How much of the diversification discount can be explained by poor corporate governance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 41-60.
    16. Da, Zhi & Guo, Re-Jin & Jagannathan, Ravi, 2012. "CAPM for estimating the cost of equity capital: Interpreting the empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 204-220.
    17. Elsas, Ralf & Hackethal, Andreas & Holzhäuser, Markus, 2010. "The anatomy of bank diversification," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1274-1287, June.
    18. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:479-506 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Marshall S Jiang & Preet S Aulakh & Yigang Pan, 2009. "Licensing duration in foreign markets: A real options perspective," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(4), pages 559-577, May.
    20. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    21. Juan Santalo & Manuel Becerra, 2008. "Competition from Specialized Firms and the Diversification–Performance Linkage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 851-883, April.
    22. Timothy B. Folta & Jonathan P. O'Brien, 2004. "Entry in the presence of dueling options," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 121-138, February.
    23. Servaes, Henri, 1996. "The Value of Diversification during the Conglomerate Merger Wave," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1201-1225, September.
    24. Belén Villalonga, 2004. "Does Diversification Cause the "Diversification Discount"?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(2), Summer.
    25. Martin, John D. & Sayrak, Akin, 2003. "Corporate diversification and shareholder value: a survey of recent literature," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 37-57, January.
    26. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    27. Protiti Dastidar, 2009. "International corporate diversification and performance: Does firm self-selection matter?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(1), pages 71-85, January.
    28. Venkat Kuppuswamy & Belén Villalonga, 2016. "Does Diversification Create Value in the Presence of External Financing Constraints? Evidence from the 2007–2009 Financial Crisis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 905-923, April.
    29. Mitton, Todd & Vorkink, Keith, 2010. "Why Do Firms with Diversification Discounts Have Higher Expected Returns?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(6), pages 1367-1390, December.
    30. Gustavo Grullon & Evgeny Lyandres & Alexei Zhdanov, 2012. "Real Options, Volatility, and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1499-1537, August.
    31. Estélyi, Kristína Sághy & Nisar, Tahir M., 2016. "Diverse boards: Why do firms get foreign nationals on their boards?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 174-192.
    32. Ferris, Stephen P. & Sen, Nilanjan & Lim, Chee Yeow & Yeo, Gillian H. H., 2002. "Corporate focus versus diversification: the role of growth opportunities and cashflow," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 231-252, July.
    33. Richard Borghesi & Joel Houston & Andy Naranjo, 2007. "Value, Survival, and the Evolution of Firm Organizational Structure," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 5-31, September.
    34. Charles Cao & Timothy Simin & Jing Zhao, 2008. "Can Growth Options Explain the Trend in Idiosyncratic Risk?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(6), pages 2599-2633, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mehdi Nezami & Kapil R. Tuli & Shantanu Dutta, 2022. "Shareholder wealth implications of software firms’ transition to cloud computing: a marketing perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 538-562, May.
    2. Velasco, Pilar, 2022. "Is bank diversification a linking channel between regulatory capital and bank value?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4).
    3. Andrés, Pablo de & Fuente, Gabriel de la & Velasco, Pilar, 2021. "Exercising a firm’s growth options: A portfolio approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 571-585.
    4. Bruyland, Evy & Lasfer, Meziane & De Maeseneire, Wouter & Song, Wei, 2019. "The performance of acquisitions by high default risk bidders," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 37-58.
    5. Garrido-Prada, Pablo & Delgado-Rodriguez, Maria Jesús & Romero-Jordán, Desiderio, 2019. "Effect of product and geographic diversification on company performance: Evidence during an economic crisis," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 269-286.
    6. Sorin-Romulus Berinde & Adrian-Gabriel Corpădean, 2019. "Assessing the Sustainable Room for Growth for a Particular Romanian Tourism Area of Business: The Case of Accommodation Businesses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Fuente, Gabriel de la & Velasco, Pilar, 2020. "Capital structure and corporate diversification: Is debt a panacea for the diversification discount?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    8. Veronika Vinogradova, 2018. "Value creation through external growth strategy: the architecture of successful performance," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 847-882, October.
    9. Chai, Shanglei & Cao, Mengjun & Li, Qiang & Ji, Qiang & Liu, Zuankuo, 2023. "Exploring the nexus between ESG disclosure and corporate sustainable growth: Moderating role of media attention," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    10. Ioulianou, Sophocles & Trigeorgis, Lenos & Driouchi, Tarik, 2017. "Multinationality and firm value: The role of real options awareness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 77-96.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fuente, Gabriel de la & Velasco, Pilar, 2020. "Capital structure and corporate diversification: Is debt a panacea for the diversification discount?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    2. de Andrés, Pablo & de la Fuente, Gabriel & Velasco, Pilar, 2016. "Are real options a missing piece in the diversification-value puzzle?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 261-271.
    3. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Doukas, John A. & Koursaros, Demetris & Louca, Christodoulos, 2019. "Valuation effects of overconfident CEOs on corporate diversification and refocusing decisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 182-204.
    4. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    5. Elif AKBEN SELCUK, 2014. "Corporate Diversification, Group Affiliation and Firm Value: Evidence From Turkey," Journal of BRSA Banking and Financial Markets, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, vol. 8(2), pages 151-174.
    6. Lee, Bong Soo & Li, Ming-Yuan Leon, 2012. "Diversification and risk-adjusted performance: A quantile regression approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 2157-2173.
    7. Patrick Bielstein & Mario Fischer & Christoph Kaserer, 2018. "The cost of capital effect of M&A transactions: Disentangling coinsurance from the diversification discount," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 24(4), pages 650-679, September.
    8. Hoechle, Daniel & Schmid, Markus & Walter, Ingo & Yermack, David, 2012. "How much of the diversification discount can be explained by poor corporate governance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 41-60.
    9. Marinelli, Federico, 2008. "Persistence of outstanding performance and shareholder value among diversified firms: The impact of past performance, efficient internal capital market, and relatedness of business segments," IESE Research Papers D/758, IESE Business School.
    10. Siraj, Ibrahim & Hassan, M. Kabir & Maroney, Neal, 2020. "Product demand sensitivity and the corporate diversification discount," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    11. Iskenderoglu, Cansu, 2023. "Product market competition and the value of diversification," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    12. Thomas R. Berry-Stölzle & Robert E. Hoyt & Sabine Wende, 2013. "Capital Market Development, Competition, Property Rights, and the Value of Insurer Product-Line Diversification: A Cross-Country Analysis," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 80(2), pages 423-459, June.
    13. Nilakshi Borah & Liu Pan & Jung Chul Park & Nan Shao, 2018. "Does corporate diversification reduce value in high technology firms?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 683-718, October.
    14. Volkov, Nikanor I. & Smith, Garrett C., 2015. "Corporate diversification and firm value during economic downturns," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 160-175.
    15. Duc Nam Phung & Anil V. Mishra, 2016. "Corporation Diversification and Firm Performance: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Firms," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 386-408, December.
    16. Brahmana, Rayenda Khresna & Setiawan, Doddy & Hooy, Chee Wooi, 2014. "Diversification strategy, Ownership Structure, and Firm Value: a study of public‐listed firms in Indonesia," MPRA Paper 64607, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Svetlana Grigorieva & Georgii Gorbatov, 2015. "Puzzle of Corporate Diversification Efficiency in Bric Countries," HSE Working papers WP BRP 47/FE/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    18. Xiao, Zhijie & Xu, Lan, 2019. "What do mean impacts miss? Distributional effects of corporate diversification," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 213(1), pages 92-120.
    19. Hovakimian, Gayané, 2016. "Excess value and restructurings by diversified firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-19.
    20. Grass, Gunnar, 2010. "The impact of conglomeration on the option value of equity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 3010-3024, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate diversification; Growth opportunities; Firm value; Investment strategy; Self-selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • C34 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:43:y:2017:i:c:p:316-339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.