IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfinec/v142y2021i2p844-861.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A tale of two types: Generalists vs. specialists in asset management

Author

Listed:
  • Zambrana, Rafael
  • Zapatero, Fernando

Abstract

Management companies assign some portfolio managers to run funds within a single investment objective (i.e., specialists), and others to run funds across several investment objectives (i.e., generalists). Our results show that funds achieve higher performance when they appoint superior pickers as specialists and market timers as generalists. We argue that these decisions are the result of a better match of manager mandates with the way information is collected and processed in each investment strategy. Overall our results are consistent with decision-making in fund families that add value to their investors by aiming to optimally assign or reassign portfolio managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Zambrana, Rafael & Zapatero, Fernando, 2021. "A tale of two types: Generalists vs. specialists in asset management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 844-861.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfinec:v:142:y:2021:i:2:p:844-861
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.04.027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X21001574
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.04.027?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. Stephen P. Ferris & Murali Jagannathan & A. C. Pritchard, 2003. "Too Busy to Mind the Business? Monitoring by Directors with Multiple Board Appointments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1087-1111, June.
    2. JONATHAN B. BERK & JULES H. van BINSBERGEN & BINYING LIU, 2017. "Matching Capital and Labor," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(6), pages 2467-2504, December.
    3. Markus Ibert & Ron Kaniel & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Roine Vestman, 2018. "Are Mutual Fund Managers Paid for Investment Skill?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(2), pages 715-772.
    4. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini & Christopher Malloy, 2008. "The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 951-979, October.
    5. Falato, Antonio & Kadyrzhanova, Dalida & Lel, Ugur, 2014. "Distracted directors: Does board busyness hurt shareholder value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 404-426.
    6. Jeffrey A Busse & Lin Tong & Qing Tong & Zhe Zhang, 2019. "Trading Regularity and Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 374-422.
    7. Breen, William & Jagannathan, Ravi & Ofer, Aharon R, 1986. "Correcting for Heteroscedasticity in Tests for Market Timing Ability," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 585-598, October.
    8. Henriksson, Roy D & Merton, Robert C, 1981. "On Market Timing and Investment Performance. II. Statistical Procedures for Evaluating Forecasting Skills," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(4), pages 513-533, October.
    9. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Marcin Kacperczyk & Amit Seru, 2007. "Fund Manager Use of Public Information: New Evidence on Managerial Skills," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 485-528, April.
    11. Hong, Harrison & Kostovetsky, Leonard, 2012. "Red and blue investing: Values and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 1-19.
    12. JULES H. Van BINSBERGEN & MICHAEL W. BRANDT & RALPH S. J. KOIJEN, 2008. "Optimal Decentralized Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1849-1895, August.
    13. Randolph B. Cohen & Joshua D. Coval & Ľuboš Pástor, 2005. "Judging Fund Managers by the Company They Keep," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1057-1096, June.
    14. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2009. "How Active Is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3329-3365, September.
    15. Nanda, Vikram & Narayanan, M. P. & Warther, Vincent A., 2000. "Liquidity, investment ability, and mutual fund structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 417-443, September.
    16. Daniel, Kent, et al, 1997. "Measuring Mutual Fund Performance with Characteristic-Based Benchmarks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1058, July.
    17. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2006. "How Active is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2370, Yale School of Management, revised 01 May 2009.
    18. Simon Gervais & Anthony W. Lynch & David K. Musto, 2005. "Fund Families as Delegated Monitors of Money Managers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1139-1169.
    19. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green, 2004. "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1269-1295, December.
    20. Dass, Nishant & Nanda, Vikram & Wang, Qinghai, 2013. "Allocation of decision rights and the investment strategy of mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 254-277.
    21. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2016. "Assessing asset pricing models using revealed preference," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 1-23.
    22. Jonathan Reuter, 2006. "Are IPO Allocations for Sale? Evidence from Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(5), pages 2289-2324, October.
    23. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2015. "Measuring skill in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 1-20.
    24. Marcin Kacperczyk & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Laura Veldkamp, 2014. "Time-Varying Fund Manager Skill," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1455-1484, August.
    25. Custódio, Cláudia & Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro, 2013. "Generalists versus specialists: Lifetime work experience and chief executive officer pay," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 471-492.
    26. Evans, Richard Burtis & Prado, Melissa Porras & Zambrana, Rafael, 2020. "Competition and cooperation in mutual fund families," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 168-188.
    27. Qiang Bu, 2019. "Mutual fund alpha and daily market-timing ability," Studies in Economics and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(4), pages 662-681, July.
    28. Sharpe, W F, 1981. "Decentralized Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(2), pages 217-234, May.
    29. Vikram Nanda, 2004. "Family Values and the Star Phenomenon: Strategies of Mutual Fund Families," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 667-698.
    30. Alexander Kempf & Stefan Ruenzi, 2008. "Tournaments in Mutual-Fund Families," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 1013-1036, April.
    31. José‐Miguel Gaspar & Massimo Massa & Pedro Matos, 2006. "Favoritism in Mutual Fund Families? Evidence on Strategic Cross‐Fund Subsidization," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 73-104, February.
    32. Massa, Massimo & Reuter, Jonathan & Zitzewitz, Eric, 2010. "When should firms share credit with employees? Evidence from anonymously managed mutual funds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 400-424, March.
    33. Campbell R. Harvey & Akhtar Siddique, 2000. "Conditional Skewness in Asset Pricing Tests," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(3), pages 1263-1295, June.
    34. Fang, Jieyan & Kempf, Alexander & Trapp, Monika, 2014. "Fund Manager Allocation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(3), pages 661-674.
    35. Khorana, Ajay & Servaes, Henri, 1999. "The Determinants of Mutual Fund Starts," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(5), pages 1043-1074.
    36. Brad M. Barber & Xing Huang & Terrance Odean, 2016. "Which Factors Matter to Investors? Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2600-2642.
    37. Spiegel, Matthew & Zhang, Hong, 2013. "Mutual fund risk and market share-adjusted fund flows," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 506-528.
    38. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    39. Ferson, Wayne & Mo, Haitao, 2016. "Performance measurement with selectivity, market and volatility timing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 93-110.
    40. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1087-1112 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Massa, Massimo & Rehman, Zahid, 2008. "Information flows within financial conglomerates: Evidence from the banks-mutual funds relation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 288-306, August.
    42. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    43. Nicolas P. B. Bollen, 2005. "Short-Term Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 569-597.
    44. Kevin J. Murphy & Ján Zábojník, 2004. "CEO Pay and Appointments: A Market-Based Explanation for Recent Trends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 192-196, May.
    45. Harry Mamaysky & Matthew Spiegel & Hong Zhang, 2008. "Estimating the Dynamics of Mutual Fund Alphas and Betas," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(1), pages 233-264, January.
    46. Marcin Kacperczyk & Clemens Sialm & Lu Zheng, 2005. "On the Industry Concentration of Actively Managed Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1983-2011, August.
    47. Core, John E. & Holthausen, Robert W. & Larcker, David F., 1999. "Corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation, and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 371-406, March.
    48. Ferson, Wayne E & Schadt, Rudi W, 1996. "Measuring Fund Strategy and Performance in Changing Economic Conditions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(2), pages 425-461, June.
    49. Joseph Chen & Harrison Hong & Ming Huang & Jeffrey D. Kubik, 2004. "Does Fund Size Erode Mutual Fund Performance? The Role of Liquidity and Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1276-1302, December.
    50. David Blake & Alberto G. Rossi & Allan Timmermann & Ian Tonks & Russ Wermers, 2013. "Decentralized Investment Management: Evidence from the Pension Fund Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(3), pages 1133-1178, June.
    51. Ralph S.J. Koijen, 2014. "The Cross-Section of Managerial Ability, Incentives, and Risk Preferences," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(3), pages 1051-1098, June.
    52. 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.
    53. William F. Sharpe, 1964. "Capital Asset Prices: A Theory Of Market Equilibrium Under Conditions Of Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 425-442, September.
    54. Nicolas P. B. Bollen & Jeffrey A. Busse, 2001. "On the Timing Ability of Mutual Fund Managers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1075-1094, June.
    55. Gerard Hoberg & Nitin Kumar & Nagpurnanand Prabhala, 2018. "Mutual Fund Competition, Managerial Skill, and Alpha Persistence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(5), pages 1896-1929.
    56. Field, Laura & Lowry, Michelle & Mkrtchyan, Anahit, 2013. "Are busy boards detrimental?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 63-82.
    57. Moreno, David & Rodríguez, Rosa & Zambrana, Rafael, 2018. "Management sub-advising in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 567-587.
    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. Sheng Cao & Shuang Xue & Hongjun Zhu, 2022. "Analysts' knowledge structure and performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(5), pages 4727-4753, December.
    2. Genc, Egemen & Shirley, Sara E. & Stark, Jeffrey R. & Tran, Hai, 2023. "Finding information in obvious places: Work connections and mutual fund investment ideas," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. El Ammari, Anis & Vidal, Marta & Vidal-García, Javier, 2023. "European market timing," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).

    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. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & O'Sullivan, Niall, 2016. "A review of behavioural and management effects in mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 162-176.
    2. Jiang, George J. & Zaynutdinova, Gulnara R. & Zhang, Huacheng, 2021. "Stock-selection timing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Keith Cuthbertson & Dirk Nitzsche & Niall O'Sullivan, 2010. "Mutual Fund Performance: Measurement and Evidence," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 95-187, May.
    4. Clemens Sialm & T. Mandy Tham, 2016. "Spillover Effects in Mutual Fund Companies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1472-1486, May.
    5. Ferson, Wayne E., 2013. "Investment Performance: A Review and Synthesis," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 969-1010, Elsevier.
    6. Mason, Andrew & Agyei-Ampomah, Sam & Skinner, Frank, 2016. "Realism, skill, and incentives: Current and future trends in investment management and investment performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 31-40.
    7. Hung, Pi-Hsia & Lien, Donald & Kuo, Ming-Sin, 2020. "Window dressing in equity mutual funds," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 338-354.
    8. Pi‐Hsia Hung & Donald Lien & Yun‐Ju Chien, 2020. "Portfolio concentration and fund manager performance," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 423-451, July.
    9. Victor DeMiguel & Javier Gil-Bazo & Francisco J. Nogales & André A. P. Santos, 2021. "Can Machine Learning Help to Select Portfolios of Mutual Funds?," Working Papers 1245, Barcelona School of Economics.
    10. Manuel Ammann & Sebastian Fischer & Florian Weigert, 2018. "Risk Factor Exposure Variation and Mutual Fund Performance," Working Papers on Finance 1817, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Nov 2018.
    11. Feldman, David & Saxena, Konark & Xu, Jingrui, 2020. "Is the active fund management industry concentrated enough?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 23-43.
    12. Ibert, Markus, 2023. "What do mutual fund managers’ private portfolios tell us about their skills?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Grønborg, Niels S. & Lunde, Asger & Timmermann, Allan & Wermers, Russ, 2021. "Picking funds with confidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 1-28.
    14. Chen, Jean Jinghan & Xie, Li & Zhou, Si, 2020. "Managerial multi-tasking, Team diversity, and mutual fund performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    16. Ľuboš Pástor & Robert F. Stambaugh & Lucian A. Taylor, 2017. "Do Funds Make More When They Trade More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1483-1528, August.
    17. Richard Evans & Javier Gil‐Bazo & Marc Lipson, 2024. "Mutual fund performance and manager assets: The negative effect of outside holdings," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 3-29, March.
    18. Gupta-Mukherjee, Swasti, 2013. "When active fund managers deviate from their peers: Implications for fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1286-1305.
    19. Bai, John Jianqiu & Tang, Yuehua & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2022. "Fund manager skill in an era of globalization: Offshore concentration and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 18-40.
    20. Dahm, Laura K. & Sorhage, Christoph, 2015. "Milk or wine: Mutual funds' (dis)economies of life," CFR Working Papers 15-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mutual fund; Institutional investors; Human capital; Specialist; Generalist; Market timing; Stock picking;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jfinec:v:142:y:2021:i:2:p:844-861. 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/505576 .

    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.