IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecofin/v42y2017icp218-236.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diversification discount and investor sentiment

Author

Listed:
  • Harper, Joel T.
  • Iyer, Subramanian Rama
  • Nejadmalayeri, Ali

Abstract

While previous research has linked the diversification discount to suboptimal managerial decisions, recent empirical work and methods have shown these relationships are not as strong. A rational learning framework indicates the diversification discount is related to economic activity. Building on this framework, we test and find support for the hypothesis that investor sentiment explains the diversification discount. Investor sentiment favors riskier firms when sentiment is high, thereby increasing returns and relative valuations. As a result, diversified firms imputed value based on these multiples leads to a larger diversification discount and reverses when sentiment falls.

Suggested Citation

  • Harper, Joel T. & Iyer, Subramanian Rama & Nejadmalayeri, Ali, 2017. "Diversification discount and investor sentiment," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 218-236.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:42:y:2017:i:c:p:218-236
    DOI: 10.1016/j.najef.2017.07.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062940816301942
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.najef.2017.07.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John A. Doukas & Nikolaos T. Milonas, 2004. "Investor Sentiment and the Closed‐end Fund Puzzle: Out‐of‐sample Evidence," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 10(2), pages 235-266, June.
    2. Michael F. Ferguson & Richard L. Shockley, 2003. "Equilibrium “Anomalies”," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2549-2580, December.
    3. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1541-1578, December.
    4. Lamont, Owen A. & Polk, Christopher, 2002. "Does diversification destroy value? Evidence from the industry shocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 51-77, January.
    5. Hund, John & Monk, Donald & Tice, Sheri, 2010. "Uncertainty about average profitability and the diversification discount," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 463-484, June.
    6. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2006. "Investor Sentiment and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1645-1680, August.
    7. Cláudia Custódio, 2014. "Mergers and Acquisitions Accounting and the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 219-240, February.
    8. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    9. Lamont, Owen, 1997. "Cash Flow and Investment: Evidence from Internal Capital Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 83-109, March.
    10. Louis K. C. Chan & Hsiu-Lang Chen & Josef Lakonishok, 2002. "On Mutual Fund Investment Styles," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1407-1437.
    11. Lee, Wayne Y. & Jiang, Christine X. & Indro, Daniel C., 2002. "Stock market volatility, excess returns, and the role of investor sentiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 2277-2299.
    12. Raghuram Rajan & Henri Servaes & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 35-80, February.
    13. Denis, David J & Denis, Diane K & Sarin, Atulya, 1997. "Agency Problems, Equity Ownership, and Corporate Diversification," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 135-160, March.
    14. Owen A. Lamont & Christopher Polk, 2001. "The Diversification Discount: Cash Flows Versus Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1693-1721, October.
    15. Glaser, Markus & Müller, Sebastian, 2010. "Is the diversification discount caused by the book value bias of debt?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2307-2317, October.
    16. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    17. Ľuboš Pástor & Veronesi Pietro, 2003. "Stock Valuation and Learning about Profitability," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 1749-1789, October.
    18. Arindam Bandopadhyaya & Anne Leah Jones, 2006. "Measuring investor sentiment in equity markets," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(3), pages 208-215, September.
    19. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:5:p:1749-1790 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Brown, Gregory W. & Cliff, Michael T., 2004. "Investor sentiment and the near-term stock market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    21. David J. Denis & Diane K. Denis & Keven Yost, 2002. "Global Diversification, Industrial Diversification, and Firm Value," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1951-1979, October.
    22. Hoechle, Daniel & Schmid, Markus & Walter, Ingo & Yermack, David, 2012. "How much of the diversification discount can be explained by poor corporate governance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 41-60.
    23. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July.
    24. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:2:p:479-506 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Gregor Matvos & Amit Seru, 2014. "Resource Allocation within Firms and Financial Market Dislocation: Evidence from Diversified Conglomerates," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 1143-1189.
    26. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Kim, Young Sang & Davidson, Wallace N. & Singh, Manohar, 2006. "Corporate governance, shareholder rights and firm diversification: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 947-963, March.
    27. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2007. "Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 129-152, Spring.
    28. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    29. Lee, Charles M C & Shleifer, Andrei & Thaler, Richard H, 1991. "Investor Sentiment and the Closed-End Fund Puzzle," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 75-109, March.
    30. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2000. "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 773-806, April.
    31. Toni M. Whited, 2001. "Is It Inefficient Investment that Causes the Diversification Discount?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1667-1691, October.
    32. Alexander Kurov, 2008. "Investor Sentiment, Trading Behavior and Informational Efficiency in Index Futures Markets," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 107-127, February.
    33. François Derrien & Ambrus Kecskes, 2009. "How Much Does Investor Sentiment Really Matter for Equity Issuance Activity?," Post-Print hal-00459766, HAL.
    34. M. Harris & C. H. Kriebel & A. Raviv, 1982. "Asymmetric Information, Incentives and Intrafirm Resource Allocation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(6), pages 604-620, June.
    35. Rubin, Amir & Smith, Daniel R., 2009. "Institutional ownership, volatility and dividends," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 627-639, April.
    36. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    37. Jin, Li & Merton, Robert C. & Bodie, Zvi, 2006. "Do a firm's equity returns reflect the risk of its pension plan?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 1-26, July.
    38. Stambaugh, Robert F., 1999. "Predictive regressions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 375-421, December.
    39. Jensen, Michael C, 1988. "Takeovers: Their Causes and Consequences," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 21-48, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yin, Libo & Bai, Ruxue, 2023. "China's diversification discount: The role of the information environment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Prince T. Medina, 2018. "Equity Analysis in Buying Company Shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange," GATR Journals jfbr148, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    3. Hwang, Hyoseok (David) & Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon, 2020. "The blind power: Power-led CEO overconfidence and M&A decision making," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Zhiwen Su & Mingyu Zhang & Jianjun Sun & Wenbing Wu, 2023. "Agribusiness diversification and technological innovation efficiency: A U‐shaped relationship," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 322-346, March.
    5. Bhuiyan, Rubaiyat Ahsan & Rahman, Maya Puspa & Saiti, Buerhan & Ghani, Gairuzazmi Bin Mat, 2019. "Does the Malaysian Sovereign sukuk market offer portfolio diversification opportunities for global fixed-income investors? Evidence from wavelet coherence and multivariate-GARCH analyses," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 675-687.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefan Erdorf & Thomas Hartmann-Wendels & Nicolas Heinrichs & Michael Matz, 2013. "Corporate diversification and firm value: a survey of recent literature," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 27(2), pages 187-215, June.
    2. Kim, Sehoon, 2020. "Disappearing Discounts: Hedge Fund Activism in Conglomerates," MPRA Paper 100876, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Juan Otero-Serrano, 2011. "Does Firm Diversification Represent A Value Added For Stockholders?," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(4), pages 99-113.
    4. Nilakshi Borah & Liu Pan & Jung Chul Park & Nan Shao, 2018. "Does corporate diversification reduce value in high technology firms?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 683-718, October.
    5. Jose Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 2002. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1731-1762, August.
    6. Campa, Jose M. & Chang, P. H. Kevin & Refalo, James F., 2002. "An options-based analysis of emerging market exchange rate expectations: Brazil's Real Plan, 1994-1999," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 227-253, October.
    7. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Leung, T.Y., 2004. "A comparative analysis of the market-based and accounting-based performance of diversifying and non-diversifying acquisitions in Hong Kong," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 763-789, December.
    8. Yasser Alhenawi & Martha Stilwell, 2017. "Value creation and the probability of success in merger and acquisition transactions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1041-1085, November.
    9. I-Ju Chen, 2016. "Corporate Governance and the Efficiency of Internal Capital Markets," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 1-50, June.
    10. Chen, Sheng-Syan & Chen, I-Ju, 2012. "Corporate governance and capital allocations of diversified firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 395-409.
    11. Lin, Chen & Su, Dongwei, 2008. "Industrial diversification, partial privatization and firm valuation: Evidence from publicly listed firms in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 405-417, September.
    12. Hou, Yang & Meng, Jiayin, 2018. "The momentum effect in the Chinese market and its relationship with the simultaneous and the lagged investor sentiment," MPRA Paper 94838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Elif AKBEN SELCUK, 2014. "Corporate Diversification, Group Affiliation and Firm Value: Evidence From Turkey," Journal of BRSA Banking and Financial Markets, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, vol. 8(2), pages 151-174.
    14. van Lelyveld, Iman & Knot, Klaas, 2009. "Do financial conglomerates create or destroy value? Evidence for the EU," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2312-2321, December.
    15. Glaser, Markus & Müller, Sebastian, 2006. "Der Diversification Discount in Deutschland: Existiert ein Bewertungsabschlag für diversifizierte Unternehmen?," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 06-13, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    16. Aissia, Dorsaf Ben, 2016. "Home and foreign investor sentiment and the stock returns," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 71-77.
    17. Marinelli, Federico, 2008. "Persistence of outstanding performance and shareholder value among diversified firms: The impact of past performance, efficient internal capital market, and relatedness of business segments," IESE Research Papers D/758, IESE Business School.
    18. Siraj, Ibrahim & Hassan, M. Kabir & Maroney, Neal, 2020. "Product demand sensitivity and the corporate diversification discount," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    19. Liu-Ching Tsai & Chaur-Shiuh Young & Hui-Wen Hsu, 2011. "Entrenched controlling shareholders and the performance consequences of corporate diversification in Taiwan," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 105-126, July.
    20. Ma. Belén Lozano García & Alberto de Miguel Hidalgo & Diana Monserrat Ríos Rodríguez, 2013. "Responsible Diversification: Knowing Enough About Diversification To Do It Responsibly: Motives, Measures And Consequences," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 1(15), pages 1-19.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecofin:v:42:y:2017:i:c:p:218-236. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620163 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.