Within‐industry diversification and firm performance—an S‐shaped hypothesis
研究发现行业内多元化与公司绩效呈S形关系：低度多元化因调整成本高于协同效应而损害绩效，适度多元化因协同效应超过成本而提升绩效，过度多元化则因协调成本过高再次降低绩效。
This study shows that the interplay between “adjustment costs”, “coordination costs” and within‐industry diversification benefits, results in an S ‐shaped relationship between within‐industry diversification and firm performance. At low levels of within‐industry diversification, coordination costs are negligible but “adjustment costs” are higher than the synergy benefits of a limited product scope, hence leading to negative performance outcomes. At moderate levels of within‐industry diversification synergies between related product categories substantially increase and outweigh the rise in adjustment and coordination costs, resulting in positive performance outcomes. Yet, extensive within‐industry diversification gives rise to considerable coordination costs, which, coupled with adjustment costs, outweigh synergy effects and hamper performance. The study further shows that a greater change rate of within‐industry diversification results in negative performance outcomes . Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.