IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/120082.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Political connections, business groups and innovation in Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Commander, Simon
  • Estrin, Saul
  • De Silva, Thamashi

Abstract

It is acknowledged that Asia’s remarkable economic achievements of the past 50 years build on institutional arrangements very different from the West, including the central role of business groups (BGs) as an organisational form. As the Asian economies move from extensive to intensive growth, we enquire whether the BG format will be as effective going forward, especially with respect to innovation. We argue that the ubiquity of BGs in Asia has been associated with the accretion of significant market power, as well as high overall concentration in the economy as a whole. Our empirical work draws on a sample of more than 9000 Asian firms across seven countries. We find that, unsurprisingly, given their access to additional resources, BGs are more innovative than non-affiliates. However we also find that the wider consequences of the BG form for innovation may be negative.

Suggested Citation

  • Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul & De Silva, Thamashi, 2023. "Political connections, business groups and innovation in Asia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120082, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:120082
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/120082/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tarun Khanna & Jan W. Rivkin, 2001. "Estimating the performance effects of business groups in emerging markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 45-74, January.
    2. Loren Brandt & Debin Ma & Thomas G. Rawski, 2014. "From Divergence to Convergence: Reevaluating the History behind China's Economic Boom," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 45-123, March.
    3. Almeida, Heitor & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2006. "Should business groups be dismantled? The equilibrium costs of efficient internal capital markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 99-144, January.
    4. Greif, Avner & Tabellini, Guido, 2017. "The clan and the corporation: Sustaining cooperation in China and Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 1-35.
    5. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Gagliardi, Luisa, 2018. "The innovative performance of firms in heterogeneous environments: The interplay between external knowledge and internal absorptive capacities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 782-795.
    6. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Sekkat, Khalid, 2015. "The formal and informal institutional framework of capital accumulation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 754-771.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2006. "Distance to Frontier, Selection, and Economic Growth," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(1), pages 37-74, March.
    8. Ronald W. Masulis & Peter Kien Pham & Jason Zein, 2011. "Family Business Groups around the World: Financing Advantages, Control Motivations, and Organizational Choices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(11), pages 3556-3600.
    9. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    10. Leff, Nathaniel H, 1978. "Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in the Developing Countries: The Economic Groups," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 661-675, July.
    11. Jordan Siegel & Prithwiraj Choudhury, 2012. "A Reexamination of Tunneling and Business Groups: New Data and New Methods," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(6), pages 1763-1798.
    12. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 17-45, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Tarun Khanna & Yishay Yafeh, 2007. "Business Groups in Emerging Markets: Paragons or Parasites?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 331-372, June.
    14. Federica Coelli & Andreas Moxnes & Karen Helene Ulltveit-Moe, 2022. "Better, Faster, Stronger: Global Innovation and Trade Liberalization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(2), pages 205-216, May.
    15. Nan Jia & Jing Shi & Yongxiang Wang, 2013. "Coinsurance Within Business Groups: Evidence from Related Party Transactions in an Emerging Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(10), pages 2295-2313, October.
    16. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 2004. "Why Some Firms Export," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 561-569, May.
    17. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    18. Marianne Bertrand & Paras Mehta & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2002. "Ferreting out Tunneling: An Application to Indian Business Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 121-148.
    19. Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul, 2023. "Coordinating Success, Predicting Failure? Why the Market vs State Debate Misses the Mark in Asia," IZA Policy Papers 202, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Kee‐Hong Bae & Jun‐Koo Kang & Jin‐Mo Kim, 2002. "Tunneling or Value Added? Evidence from Mergers by Korean Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2695-2740, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul & De Silva, Thamashi, 2023. "Political Connections, Business Groups and Innovation," IZA Discussion Papers 16007, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Luis Alfonso Dau & Randall Morck & Bernard Yin Yeung, 2021. "Business groups and the study of international business: A Coasean synthesis and extension," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(2), pages 161-211, March.
    3. Carney, Michael & Estrin, Saul & Van Essen, Marc & Shapiro, Daniel, 2017. "Business groups reconsidered: beyond paragons and parasites," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87340, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Nan Jia & Jing Shi & Yongxiang Wang, 2013. "Coinsurance Within Business Groups: Evidence from Related Party Transactions in an Emerging Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(10), pages 2295-2313, October.
    5. Cheng, Liubing & Chen, Yanyan & Zhang, Yan, 2022. "Business groups and corporate bond costs: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Viswanathan Nagarajan & Pitabas Mohanty & Apalak Khatua, 2023. "Financing effects of corporate diversification: A review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(7), pages 2555-2585, October.
    7. Bena, Jan & Ortiz-Molina, Hernán, 2013. "Pyramidal ownership and the creation of new firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 798-821.
    8. Mara Faccio & William J. O’Brien, 2021. "Business Groups and Employment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3468-3491, June.
    9. Ishtiaq P. Mahmood & Hongjin Zhu & Akbar Zaheer, 2017. "Centralization of intragroup equity ties and performance of business group affiliates," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1082-1100, May.
    10. Anish Purkayastha & Vishal K. Gupta, 2023. "Business group affiliation and entrepreneurial orientation: Contingent effect of level of internationalization and firm’s performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 847-876, June.
    11. Daphne W. Yiu & Yuan Lu & Garry D. Bruton & Robert E. Hoskisson, 2007. "Business Groups: An Integrated Model to Focus Future Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 1551-1579, December.
    12. Carney, Richard W. & Child, Travers Barclay & Li, Xiang, 2020. "Board connections and crisis performance: Family, state, and political networks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Byun, Hae-Young & Choi, Sunhwa & Hwang, Lee-Seok & Kim, Robert G., 2013. "Business group affiliation, ownership structure, and the cost of debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 311-331.
    14. Mahdi Tajeddin & Michael Carney, 2019. "African Business Groups: How Does Group Affiliation Improve SMEs’ Export Intensity?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(6), pages 1194-1222, November.
    15. Randall Morck, 2009. "The Riddle of the Great Pyramids," NBER Working Papers 14858, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Buchuk, David & Larrain, Borja & Muñoz, Francisco & Urzúa I., Francisco, 2014. "The internal capital markets of business groups: Evidence from intra-group loans," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 190-212.
    17. A. Melih Küllü & Steven Raymar, 2018. "Groups, Pricing, and Cost of Debt: Evidence from Turkey," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-31, March.
    18. Paligorova, Teodora & Xu, Zhaoxia, 2012. "Complex ownership and capital structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 701-716.
    19. Jeoung Yul Lee & Shufeng (Simon) Xiao & Surender Munjal, 2023. "How business groups build globally relevant knowledge from local contexts? Exploring the double-edged sword effect of cultural diversity," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 2189-2224, November.
    20. Aharon Cohen Mohliver & Gitit Gur-Gershgorn & Shinjinee Chattopadhyay, 2013. "IPO pricing and ownership structure: the business-group effect," Chapters, in: Mario Levis & Silvio Vismara (ed.), Handbook of Research on IPOs, chapter 16, pages 327-344, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    innovation; R&D; Asian business groups; market power; overall concentration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:120082. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.