Product Diversification and Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Secondary Stakeholders
研究发现，次要利益相关者（如非营利组织）能正向调节产品多元化与财务绩效的关系，且对非相关多元化的调节作用更强。
The challenges firms face increase with their product diversification levels because different product markets possess different sociopolitical issues. We argue that secondary stakeholders, as represented by various nonprofit or non-governmental organizations, serve as agents mitigating the external constraints embedded within sociopolitical environments. Firms should therefore maintain relationships with different secondary-stakeholder scopes commensurate with their product diversification levels in order to enhance financial performance. Analyzing a sample of U.S. Fortune 500 firms during the period from 1996 to 2003, we found that secondary stakeholders play a positive moderating role in the relationship between product diversification and financial performance. Furthermore, this moderating effect was stronger in the case of unrelated diversification than in related diversification.