Conglomerate Firms, Internal Capital Markets, and the Theory of the Firm
本文综述了联合大企业文献，重点质疑了联合大企业相比独立企业会破坏价值的观点，发现其投资决策符合价值最大化，且估值溢价或折价源于差异化产品生产差异，并探讨了市场不完美对内部资本市场的影响。
This article reviews the conglomerate literature, with a focus on recent papers that have cast strong doubt on the hypothesis that conglomerate firms destroy value on average when compared to similar stand-alone firms. Recent work has shown that investment decisions by conglomerate firms are consistent with value maximization; conglomerate firms trade at an average premium relative to single-segment firms when value weighting; and the valuation premia and discounts, both for conglomerates and single-segment firms, are driven by differences in the production of unique differentiated products. A profit-maximizing theory of the firm that considers how firms select their organizational structure can explain these recent findings and much of the large variation in findings in the conglomerate literature. We also review the literature showing how market imperfections create additional benefits and costs for internal capital markets and a potential for managerial distortions.