THE PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS OF INTRA- AND INTER-REGIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSIFICATION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Qian, Gongming; Khoury, Theodore A.; Peng, Mike W.; Qian, Zhengming
• 署名单位: Oregon State University; Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of Texas System; University of Texas Dallas; Xiamen University
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.855
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 1018-1030
• 关键词: geographic diversification; multinational enterprise strategy; regionalization; multinationality performance; MNE; geographic spread

摘要

Engaging the debate regarding the appropriate level of geographic diversification for multinational enterprises (MNEs), we examine a critical, yet unresolved, question: How is performance impacted by the MNE's level of intra- and inter-regional diversification versus the total level of geographic diversification? Using data from 123 U.S.-based MNEs over a seven-year period and leveraging both sales-based and subsidiary-based measures for diversification, we find that performance increases at an increasingly higher rate as firms concentrate more heavily on intro-regional diversification. Regarding inter-regional diversification and total geographic diversification, we find inverted-U relationships to exist between firm performance and the level of geographic diversification. Different from recent research on multinationality, our robustness checks indicate no evidence of a sigmoidal relationship between the degree of regional diversification and performance. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.