本国的环境中,公司多元化战略与企业绩效

外文翻译原文Home Country En vir onments ‘Corporate Diversificati on Strategies and FirmPerforma neeMaterial Source: Academy of Management Journal Author: William P. Wan、Robert E. Hoskiss onResearch on corporate diversificati on has made sig nifica nt eon tributi on to the field of strategic man ageme nt in the past decades (Hoskiss on&Hitt,1990). With few exceptions,however, most prior studies have assumed away the country environmental differences in which the diversification strategies are adopted. In product diver- sificati on research, rece nt theories and empirical studies are mostly groun ded in the corporate refocus ing, or dow nscop ing, experie nces of the Un ited States in the past two decades (Hoskiss on&Hitt,1994). However, there is evide nee that even firms in the United States might have benefited from unrelated diversification in the 1960swhe n con glomerates enjo yed efficie nt in ternal capital markets in the abse nee of a m-atured exter nal capital market (Hubbard&Palia,1999).Such ben efits bega n to diminish in the 1970s along with econo mic and regulatory improveme nts in the1970s an d 1980s (Markides,1992). Con textual differe nces become eve n more salie nt whe n we attempt to apply extant theories and findings across countries. For example, diversified bus in ess con glomerates have domin ated many econo mies throughout the world(Khanna&Palepu,1997), while in the United States they have decreased as a sign ifica nt form. As such, our kno wledge about the product diversificati on strategies pursued by firms in other coun tries is limited.More recently, the topic of international diversification has also captured the atention of corporate diversification researchers (e.g.,Hitt,Hoskisson,&Kim,1997;Tallman&Li,1996).Despite its significant contribution, this line of research likewise has its theoretical and empirical focus predominantly centered on firms located in a few countries, mainly the United States or Japan, and seldom examined firms locate -d in other countries (Tallman&Shenkar,1990).Although extant research has gen erally supported a positive relati on ship betwee n intern ati onal diversificati on and performanee(e.g.,Geringer,Beamish,&daCosta,1989;Hitt et al.,1997), the applicability of such theoretical argume nts and findings across coun tries has yet to be adequately exam ined in thediversificati on literature. More research is n ecessary to illumi nate if firms located in differe nt country en vir onments can also ben efit from internati onal diversification.The focus of this study is to explore how coun try-level en vir onmen tal con texts affect the relatio nships betwee n corporate diversificati on strategies and firm performan ce. Primarily draw ing upon argume nts developed in in stituti onalecono mics(e.g.,Clague,1997;North,1990),we seek to reexam ine the relati on ships between corporate diversification strategies and firm performanee between dissimilar types of home country environments. Hirsch and Lounsbury(1996) advocated, in gen eral, the use of in stituti onal econo mics in study ing orga ni zati onal differences and our research mets this request. This study advances the current theories of corporate diversification by explicitly incorporating the importanee of home country en vir onmen tal con texts and recog nizing that differe nt con texts embody diverse levels of environmental mun -ificenee (Castrogiovanni,1991;Dess &Beard,1984). In this study, we define munificence in terms of more tangible producti on factors, such as physical in frastructure, available to firms (labeled factors) and less tangible institutional support, such as judiciary efficiency,which facilitates tran sacti ons (labeled in stituti on s). Firms draw on their home country en vir onments factors and in stituti ons to help produce goods or services and to excha nge in puts and outputs with others. We rec on ceptualize various corporate diversificati on strategies as strategic actions to facilitate the substitution or utilization of factors and institutions for enhancing firms "competitive advantagesAccordingly, we suggest that certain diversification strategies are more likely to be as- sociated with superior performance in certain home country environments. By bringing home country environment to the foreground, this study extends the corporate diversification literature by providing a fresh approach to understand various corporate diversification strategies from a comparative country environmental perspective. Furthermore, our study con tributes to the corporate diversificati on literature by expl- ai ning the performa nce implicati ons of both product and intern ati onal diversificati on strategies largely conceptualized from an institutional economics perspective (North,1990). More specifically, by juxtaposing product and international diversificati on strategies premised on a com mon set of rati on ales within an in tegrative con ceptual framework, our study seeks to provide an expla nati on for the apparent “ paradoxical ” relationship between corporate diversification strategies and firm performanee across dissimilar home country environments (e.g.,Geringer et al.,2000).We tested our con ceptual framework on a sample of firms from six Western Europea n coun tries. Wester n Europe represe nts a new sett ing for exte nding the kno wle- dge of corporate diversificati on bey ond the traditi onal country en vir onmen tal con texts.Although Wester n Europea n coun tries are, for the most part, developed coun tries, there are persiste nt, no table variati ons in the degrees of econo mic success and sociopolitical developme nts among them, allowi ng us to exam ine the hypothesized performa nee differences of diversification strategies due to country-level environmental munificence dissimilarity. Also, focusing on Western Europe minimizes a host of undue exoge nous in flue nces, such as regi onal econo mic shocks or remote geographic locations that limit international diversification, thereby enabling us to interpret the findings more clearly withi n the framework of country en vir onmen tal con text varia- tio n.Although our focus in this study is exploratory in nature, we found significant performance differences among diversification strategies between dissimilar home country en vir onmen ts. Future studies may in vestigate additi onal classificati ons of country en vir onments to adva nce our kno wledge in this area. For in sta nce, research on hybrid country en vir onments with abundant factors but in adequate in stituti ons or vice versa would be in terest ing exte nsions. Additi onal studies can explore if different kinds of factors and institutions would provide complementary or conflicting influence upon one ano ther. Such an exam in ati on can further illu min ate how complex country en vir onmen tal variables in flue nce the relati on ships betwee n diversificati on strategies and performa nce. Moreover, although Western Europe represe nts an appropriate testing ground for this study, future studies would find it fruitful to extend the arguments developed in this study to other parts of the world where more potential con trast betwee n country en vir onments may exist.Our study primarily explored how coun try-level en vir onmen tal mun ifice nce affects the performa nce outcomes of diversification strategies. Future research might attempt to unravel how specific factors an d/or in stituti ons in flue nce firm strategies and performa nce. Furthermore, we used broader proxy measures to capture the mun ifice nce level of the macro-e nvir onmen ts. Although the coun try-level measures used in our study are more comprehe nd -sive than prior studies in this area,finergrained measures will be able to more fully capture these coun try-level variables, as well as to shed additi on al light on their direct in flue nce. Moreover, future efforts in creat ing an in dex on factors and in stitutio ns for a large number of countries, thus allowing the use of additional statistical methods such as factor an alysis, would be ben eficial for the further developme nt of this line of research. Following most prior diversification studies, we used dummies to control for industry effects. However, industry dummies may not fully partial out in dustry effects as many firms operate in multiple in dustries. Future studies on bus in ess-level strategies, focus ing on sin gle-bus in ess firms, would be able to address this aspect. Although our study con trolled for the effects of blockholders, prior studies (e.g. , Thomse n and Pederse n, 2000) found that ownership types affect performa nee differe ntially. Future research may ben efit by further teas ing out the in dividual effects of various types of own ership.Accordi ngly, our approach may have a pote ntial li nk to the topic of intern ati onal corporate gover nan ce. Market-based gover nance structures help en sure firm efficiency by allow ing a separati on of own ership and man ageme nt. Adequate in stituti ons, such as well-developed con trol mecha ni sms, in more mun ifice nt en vir onments may allow firms to tran sact with the most efficie nt coun terparts. Non market-based governance structures, such as family ownership, may exist in response to low levels of en vir onmen tal mun ifice nee. In further develop ing our approach, future research on intern ati onal corporate gover nance may build an in tegrated con ceptual framework for explai ning the co-existe nee of differe nt forms of gover nance structures across home country en vir onmen ts. Ano ther fruitful exte nsion is to in tegrate our approach with other macro-e nvir onmen tal frameworks, such as Murtha and Len way'(1994) taxonomy of n ati onal systems of in terest in termediatio n, and further exam ine the performa nee implicatio ns of diversificati on strategies. This may broade n our approach- h' s theoretical scope to expla in thstrategic behaviors of intern ati onal entrants and cooperative part ners. Our approach may also improve un dersta nding regard ing the topic of intern ati onal en try. Previous literature in this area has largely focused on nation ality or cultural symmetry as a key coun try-level determ inant of intern ati on al e n- try decisi on (e.g.,Kogut&Sin gh,1988). Our approach suggests that the match ing of country environmental characteristics may also represent a crucial element. For example, firms from coun tries with un stable political in stituti ons but abundant factors may have the incen tives and abilities to en ter en vir onments where in ward foreig n investments are particularly welcome. Such a matching of factors and institutions may thus represent another important consideration in future international entry research. Furthermore, research on corporate inno vati on and en trepre neurship may find our approach useful. For example, in less munificent environments, firms may find it risky to develop core compete ncies based on product inno vati on because appropriability regime is weaker (Teece,1986).Moreover, human capitalmay be swayed to choose ren t-seek ing occupati ons, such as in gover nment bureaucracy or military ‘in stead of pursuing entrepreneurial activities (Murphy,Shleifer,&Vishny,1991). Without adequate factors and in stituti ons that foster inno vative startups, in cumbe nt firms would domin ate the bus in ess topography. As our research shows, although these incumbent firms are dominant in less munificent environments, many of them are un likely to be pote nt global competitors. Despite intense competitio n in more munificent en viro nmen ts,firms in these en vir onments are more likely to be world-class co- mpani es. In this light, the theory andevide nee of this study may have importa nt im- plicati ons for corporate inno vatio n and en trepre neurship, particularly from a cross- coun try, comparative perspective.In summary,we suggesteda nd found that the relati on ships betwee n corporate diversificatio n strategies and firm performa nee differ betwee n home country envir- onmen ts.Our study highlights the crucial importa nee of in corporat ing the home country environment into the study of corporate diversification, and possibly in other strategy topics as well.Given the potential importanee of the conceptual approach developed in this study, further theoretical adva nceme nt and empirical studies using this approach are likely to be fruitful.译文本国的环境中，公司多元化战略与企业绩效资料来源：管理科学研究院作者：威廉姆•万、罗伯特•赫斯金森在战略管理领域的过去的几十年，对企业多元化研究取得了重大的贡献（赫斯金森&希特，1990）。