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Organizational Structure and Investment Strategy

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  • Lóránth, Gyöngyi
  • Morrison, Alan
  • Zeng, Jing

Abstract

We show that a firm can use its organizational structure to commit to an investment strategy. The firmdelegates sequential search and project management tasks to a manager. Ex post, the firm turns away projects that generate high project management rent. However, because the expectation of such rent serves to defray the manager’s search cost, investment might be optimal ex ante. A leveraged subsidiary mitigates this time-inconsistency problem by creating ex post risk-shifting incentives that counteract underinvestment. Subsidiaries are more valuable for projects with costly search, intermediate management costs, and returns that are uncorrelated with the existing business.

Suggested Citation

  • Lóránth, Gyöngyi & Morrison, Alan & Zeng, Jing, 2020. "Organizational Structure and Investment Strategy," CEPR Discussion Papers 15602, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:15602
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational structure; Multinational business; Branch; Subsidiary;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

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