Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Moore School of Business

Sub-Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Tatiana Kostova

Abstract

The dissertation explores determinants and consequences of international diversification and consists of two essays. Essay I focuses on the relationship between international diversification and firm performance (ID-P). Drawing on the global strategy literature and the institution-based view of strategy, we propose that the mixed findings of extant research on the ID-P relationship can be explained by the contextual conditions in which this relationship exists, including home-country formal and informal institutions. The model is tested in a meta-analysis (HOMA, MARA, and HiLLMA analyses) of firm-, industry-, and home country-level factors driving the ID-P relationship. The sample consists of 359 primary studies across 32 countries between 1972 and 2012—the largest sample of primary studies of any meta-analysis on this topic to date. The main finding is that international diversification positively impacts firm performance and the strength of this effect is contingent on the specific formal and informal institutions of the home country. Essay II focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and international diversification (CG-ID). The study utilizes a multidimensional conceptualization of the two constructs, exploring breadth and depth of ID and several mechanisms of CG (e.g., ownership concentration, CEO compensation, and board independence). Drawing on agency theory and the resource and information-processing perspectives, we propose bidirectional causal effects between CG and ID. Our arguments are then contextualized by exploring the moderating effect of home-country institutional and cultural conditions and, in particular, the legal protection of minority shareholders and the national uncertainty avoidance. We test the model using meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) with data from 104 primary studies across 28 countries covering the 1970-2012 period and find overall support for our theoretical predictions. The dissertation contributes to the literatures of global strategy and corporate governance and provides valuable insights to the practice of international business.

Rights

© 2017, Ettore Spadafora

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