Clustering as a pattern of expansion within and across industries

The paper analyzes firms' expansion paths within and across industries and specifically different patterns along these paths. Using a procedure previously applied in statistical process control and employing longitudinal data on the expansion of 91 German firms, we analyzed firms' clustering behavior regarding different characteristics. Results reveal that expansion is a heterogeneous process: the clustering behavior along the expansion path does not only differ between firms, but also within one firm regarding different characteristics of its expansion path.

[1]  Joseph T. Mahoney,et al.  Examining the Penrose effect in an international business context: the dynamics of Japanese firm growth in US industries , 2005 .

[2]  Mason A. Carpenter,et al.  Top Management Teams, Global Strategic Posture, and the Moderating Role of Uncertainty , 2001 .

[3]  A. Stinchcombe.  Social Structure and Organizations , 2000, Political Organizations.

[4]  B. Kogut,et al.  Technological capabilities and Japanese foreign direct investment in the United States , 1991 .

[5]  A. Robinson,et al.  The Problem of Management and the Size of Firms , 1934 .

[6]  M. Hitt,et al.  Strategic Control Systems And Relative R&D Investment , 1988 .

[7]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[8]  S. Finkelstein,et al.  The Influence of Organizational Acquisition Experience on Acquisition Performance: A Behavioral Learning Perspective , 1999 .

[9]  Laura B. Cardinal,et al.  Curvilinearity in the diversification–performance linkage: an examination of over three decades of research , 2000 .

[10]  Michael Shayne Gary,et al.  Implementation strategy and performance outcomes in related diversification , 2005 .

[11]  Henry Mintzberg.  Power and Organization Life Cycles , 1984 .

[12]  A. J. Taylor.  Management applications of modern control theory , 1976 .

[13]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[14]  H V Roberts.  Using personal checklists to facilitate TQM. , 1994, Clinical laboratory management review : official publication of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association.

[15]  H. Barkema,et al.  International Expansion Through Start-Up or Acquisition: A Learning Perspective , 1998 .

[16]  H. Barkema,et al.  FOREIGN ENTRY, CULTURAL BARRIERS, AND LEARNING , 1996 .

[17]  A. R. Crathorne,et al.  Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product. , 1933 .

[18]  Vasudevan Ramanujam,et al.  Research on corporate diversification: A synthesis , 1989 .

[19]  N. Churchill,et al.  The Five Stages of Small Business Growth , 1983 .

[20]  L. Argote,et al.  The persistence and transfer of learning in industrial settings , 1990 .

[21]  J. Johanson,et al.  The Internationalization Process of the Firm—A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments , 1977 .

[22]  Yan Jin,et al.  Simulating Project Work Processes and Organizations: Toward a Micro-Contingency Theory of Organizational Design , 1999 .

[23]  Cynthia A. Montgomery,et al.  Corporate acquisition strategies and economic performance , 1987 .

[24]  M. Tushman,et al.  Organizational Evolution: A Metamorphosis Model of Convergence and Reorientation , 1985 .

[25]  H. Leibenstein,et al.  Economic theory and organizational analysis , 1965 .

[26]  J. R. Moore,et al.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[27]  S. Hymer,et al.  The International Operations of National Firms: A Study of Direct Foreign Investment , 1976 .

[28]  Constantinos C. Markides,et al.  Consequences Of Corporate Refocusing: Ex Ante Evidence , 1992 .

[29]  Annette L. Ranft,et al.  Organizational Learning About New International Markets: Exploring the Internal Transfer of Local Market Knowledge , 2000 .

[30]  Sea Jin Chang,et al.  AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON DIVERSIFICATION AND CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING: ENTRY, EXIT, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE DURING 1981–89 , 1996 .

[31]  E. Chamberlin.  The theory of monopolistic competition : a re-orientation of the theory of value , 1947 .

[32]  Richard A. Johnson,et al.  Research notes and communications corporate restructuring and strategic change: The effect on diversification strategy and R & D intensity , 1992 .

[33]  Elizabeth L. Rose,et al.  How firms grow: clustering as a dynamic model of internationalization , 2005 .

[34]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[35]  John McGee,et al.  A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE COMPETITIVE POSITIONS AND ENTRY PATHS OF EUROPEAN FIRMS IN THE U.S. PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET , 1996 .

[36]  Thomas H. Brush,et al.  The free cash flow hypothesis for sales growth and firm performance , 2000 .

[37]  Harry G. Barkema,et al.  Organizational Learning and diversification , 1994 .

[38]  Frederick T. Knickerbocker.  Oligopolistic Reaction and Multinational Enterprise , 1973 .

[39]  H. Simon,et al.  Theories of Decision-Making in Economics and Behavioural Science , 1966 .

[40]  L. Greiner.  Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow , 1997 .

[41]  William J. Baumol,et al.  On the Theory of Expansion of the Firm , 1972 .

[42]  H. Barkema,et al.  Pace, rhythm and scope: Process dependence in building a profitable multinational corporation , 2002 .

[43]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Are Tradeoffs Inherent in Diversification Moves? a Simultaneous Model for Type of Diversification and Mode of Expansion Decisions , 1999 .

[44]  Mathew L. A. Hayward.  When do firms learn from their acquisition experience? Evidence from 1990 to 1995 , 2002 .

[45]  S. Vaida,et al.  Studies in the Mathematical Theory of Inventory and Production , 1958 .

[46]  M. Shubik,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. , 1964 .

[47]  D. Tan,et al.  The limits to the growth of multinational firms in a foreign market , 2003 .

[48]  Donald D. Bergh,et al.  Size and relatedness of units sold: An agency theory and resource‐based perspective , 1995 .

[49]  Anurag Sharma,et al.  Mode of entry and ex-post performance , 1998 .

[50]  W. Davidson.  The Location of Foreign Direct Investment Activity: Country Characteristics and Experience Effects , 1980 .

[51]  George S. Yip.  Diversification entry: Internal development versus acquisition , 1982 .

[52]  B. Kogut,et al.  Technological Platforms and Diversification , 1996 .

[53]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[54]  Stephen Nicholas,et al.  Agency Contracts, Institutional Modes, and the Transition to Foreign Direct Investment by British Manufacturing Multinationals Before 1939 , 1983, The Journal of Economic History.

[55]  Harry G. Barkema,et al.  Working abroad, working with others: How firms learn to operate international joint ventures , 1997 .

[56]  Malcolm S. Salter,et al.  Diversification Through Acquisition: Strategies for Creating Economic Value , 1979 .

[57]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Making Fast Strategic Decisions In High-Velocity Environments , 1989 .

[58]  Robin Marris.  An Introduction to Theories of Corporate Growth , 1971 .

[59]  P. P. McDougall,et al.  International Entrepreneurship: The Intersection of Two Research Paths , 2000 .

[60]  Jaeyong Song,et al.  Firm capabilities and technology ladders: sequential foreign direct investments of Japanese electronics firms in East Asia , 2002 .

[61]  Sidney G. Winter,et al.  The satisficing principle in capability learning , 2000 .

[62]  Constantinos C. Markides,et al.  Diversification, restructuring and economic performance , 1995 .

[63]  Anand Swaminathan,et al.  Organizational Evolution in the interorganizational Environment: Incentives and Constraints on International Expansion Strategy , 1998 .

[64]  R. Vernon.  International investment and international trade in the product cycle , 1966 .

[65]  David W. Packer.  Resource acquisition in corporate growth , 1964 .

[66]  Rogelio Oliva,et al.  Cutting Corners and Working Overtime: Quality Erosion in the Service Industry , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[67]  K. Palepu.  Diversification strategy, profit performance and the entropy measure , 1985 .

[68]  Joseph F. Porac,et al.  Are more resources always better for growth? Resource stickiness in market and product expansion , 2004 .

[69]  Richard A. Johnson.  Antecedents and Outcomes of Corporate Refocusing , 1996 .