Value, Survival, and the Evolution of Firm Organizational Structure

Richard Borghesi, Joel Houston and Andy Naranjo

Financial Management, 2007, vol. 36, issue 3, 5-31

Abstract: We examine corporate product diversification as a dynamic process. Consistent with prior research, we find that the average diversification discount is about 8% when using the standard value‐multiple approach. However, we find that a significant portion of the diversification discount arises from benchmark comparisons of value ratios of mature firms with those of very young firms that are more likely to have high value multiples. The magnitude of the diversification discount falls by 15% to 30% when we control for firm age. We also show that diversification reduces the mortality rate of firms, and we provide evidence that mature firms pursue diversification strategies partly as a means to exit stagnant business segments for industries that are more highly valued.

Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-053X.2007.tb00078.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:finmgt:v:36:y:2007:i:3:p:5-31

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0046-3892

Access Statistics for this article

Financial Management is currently edited by William G. Christie

More articles in Financial Management from Financial Management Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().