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A Behavioral Account of Opportunistic Diversification: Evidence from Non-Real-Estate Firms’ Investment in Real Estate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2023
Abstract
This study provides a behavioral account of opportunistic diversification. We argue that top executives’ social comparison with peer firms based on business segment performance can lead them to increase their investments in high-profitability new businesses (i.e., opportunistic diversification). Specifically, when the performance of a firm's main business relative to its peer firms’ high-profitability business segment falls short of their aspirations, the firm's top executives will engage in problemistic search and subsequently increase opportunistic diversification. This effect is stronger when the firm is similar to peer firms along key firm characteristics and when top executives of the firm are underpaid. Although opportunistic diversification helps improve a firm's short-term accounting performance, it may weaken its long-term performance. Using Chinese non-real-estate firms’ diversification investment in real estate as our empirical context, we find support for our arguments.
摘要
本文基于企业行为理论解释了企业的机会主义多元化行为。我们认为高管将公司主业业绩与同群公司特定业务的业绩做比较，并可能相应增加对盈利较高的新业务的投资（即“机会主义多元化”）。具体来说，当公司主业相比较同群公司高盈利业务的业绩低于高管预期时，管理者将进行问题搜寻，随后增加机会主义多元化投资。当公司与同群公司特征相近、高管薪酬较低时，上述作用更强。机会主义多元化能够改善公司的短期会计绩效，但对公司长期绩效是不利的。我们用中国非房地产企业投资房地产业务的情境对上述问题进行了实证检验，证明了我们的观点。
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Association for Chinese Management Research
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