Why Are Firms Rigid? A General Framework and Empirical Tests

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: de Figueiredo, Rui J. P., Jr.; Rawley, Evan; Rider, Christopher I.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Columbia University; Georgetown University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2015.0998
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1502-1519
• 关键词: ORGANIZATIONAL ECONOMICS; ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES; strategy and firm performance; organizational change; firm scope; diversification

摘要

We present a general framework for understanding why firms are slow to make major strategic changes in a wide range of empirical settings. We then apply this framework to investigate, more specifically, the relationship between firm age and scope in hedge funds. Our empirical analyses demonstrate that younger hedge funds outperform older hedge funds both before and after the launch of a new fund. Based on our framework, these results suggest that age-based rigidity in hedge funds is more attributable to internal political frictions that influence project selection than to constraints associated with exchange partners or implementation costs. We conclude by discussing how our framework can be used to identify the dominant source of rigidity in other contexts.