IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i9p2561-d228030.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic Decoupling in Korean Business Groups: Ambiguous Identity as a Strategy in Chaebol Groups

Author

Listed:
  • Grimm Noh

    (Yonsei Business Research Institutue, Yonsei Univeristy, Seoul 03722, Korea)

Abstract

I examine how firms affiliated with Korean business groups utilize decoupling of the stated business area and actual business activities to maintain the economic sustainability of their organizations. In examining the strategic sources of decoupling, I focus on the idiosyncratic nature of Korean business groups, otherwise known as chaebols. I suggest that decoupling of the stated and actual business areas of a chaebol affiliate is affected positively by the number of regulations in the industry, positively by the relative resource endowment of the affiliate within the chaebol, and negatively by the affiliate’s niche overlap with other affiliates. However, the negative effect of niche overlap was moderated by the affiliate’s relative resource endowment.

Suggested Citation

  • Grimm Noh, 2019. "Strategic Decoupling in Korean Business Groups: Ambiguous Identity as a Strategy in Chaebol Groups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2561-:d:228030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2561/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2561/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Niklas Potrafke, 2011. "Does government ideology influence budget composition? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 101-134, June.
    2. Thomas H. Brush & Philip Bromiley & Margaretha Hendrickx, 2000. "The free cash flow hypothesis for sales growth and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 455-472, April.
    3. Blake E. Ashforth & Barrie W. Gibbs, 1990. "The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(2), pages 177-194, May.
    4. Niklas Potrafke, 2010. "Does government ideology influence deregulation of product markets? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 135-155, April.
    5. Kahle, Kathleen M. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1996. "The Impact of Industry Classifications on Financial Research," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 309-335, September.
    6. Kathleen M. Kahle & Ralph A. Walkling, "undated". "The Impact of Industry Classifications on Financial Research," Research in Financial Economics 9607, Ohio State University.
    7. Stan Xiao Li & Royston Greenwood, 2004. "The effect of within‐industry diversification on firm performance: synergy creation, multi‐market contact and market structuration," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(12), pages 1131-1153, December.
    8. Guenther, David A. & Rosman, Andrew J., 1994. "Differences between COMPUSTAT and CRSP SIC codes and related effects on research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 115-128, July.
    9. Dang, Chongyu & (Frank) Li, Zhichuan & Yang, Chen, 2018. "Measuring firm size in empirical corporate finance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 159-176.
    10. Tarun Khanna & Krishna Palepu, 2000. "Is Group Affiliation Profitable in Emerging Markets? An Analysis of Diversified Indian Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(2), pages 867-891, April.
    11. Daphne W. Yiu & Yuan Lu & Garry D. Bruton & Robert E. Hoskisson, 2007. "Business Groups: An Integrated Model to Focus Future Research," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 1551-1579, December.
    12. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    13. Clarke, Richard N, 1989. "SICs as Delineators of Economic Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(1), pages 17-31, January.
    14. Charles W. L. Hill & Michael A. Hitt & Robert E. Hoskisson, 1992. "Cooperative Versus Competitive Structures in Related and Unrelated Diversified Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 501-521, November.
    15. Gary Erickson & Robert Jacobson, 1992. "Gaining Comparative Advantage Through Discretionary Expenditures: The Returns to R&D and Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(9), pages 1264-1279, September.
    16. Edward J. Zajac & James D. Westphal, 1994. "The Costs and Benefits of Managerial Incentives and Monitoring in Large U.S. Corporations: When is More not Better?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 121-142, December.
    17. Sayan Chatterjee & Birger Wernerfelt, 1991. "The link between resources and type of diversification: Theory and evidence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 33-48, January.
    18. Mary Bowerman, 2002. "Theme: Local Government: Isomorphism Without Legitimacy? The Case of the Business Excellence Model in Local Government," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 47-52, April.
    19. Fan, Joseph P H & Lang, Larry H P, 2000. "The Measurement of Relatedness: An Application to Corporate Diversification," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(4), pages 629-660, October.
    20. Bailey, Elizabeth E, 1981. "Contestability and the Design of Regulatory and Antitrust Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 178-183, May.
    21. Balagopal Vissa & Henrich R. Greve & Wei-Ru Chen, 2010. "Business Group Affiliation and Firm Search Behavior in India: Responsiveness and Focus of Attention," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 696-712, June.
    22. Leff, Nathaniel H, 1978. "Industrial Organization and Entrepreneurship in the Developing Countries: The Economic Groups," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 661-675, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Brickley, James A. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 2010. "Corporate governance myths: Comments on Armstrong, Guay, and Weber," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 235-245, December.
    2. Yasser Alhenawi & Martha L. Stilwell, 2019. "Toward a complete definition of relatedness in merger and acquisition transactions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 351-396, August.
    3. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Charles M. C. Lee & Derek K. Oler, 2003. "What's My Line? A Comparison of Industry Classification Schemes for Capital Market Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 745-774, December.
    4. Chunxia, Yang & Xueshuai, Zhu & Luoluo, Jiang & Sen, Hu & He, Li, 2016. "Study on the contagion among American industries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 444(C), pages 601-612.
    5. Lee, Charles M.C. & Ma, Paul & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2015. "Search-based peer firms: Aggregating investor perceptions through internet co-searches," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 410-431.
    6. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-062 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. David Flacher & Jacques Pelletan, 2007. "Le concept d'industrie et sa mesure : origines, limites et perspectives - Une application à l'étude des mutations industrielles," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 405(1), pages 13-46.
    8. van der Heijden, Hans, 2022. "Predicting industry sectors from financial statements: An illustration of machine learning in accounting research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(5).
    9. Sathyajit R. Gubbi & Preet S. Aulakh & Sougata Ray, 2015. "International Search Behavior of Business Group Affiliated Firms: Scope of Institutional Changes and Intragroup Heterogeneity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(5), pages 1485-1501, October.
    10. Weiner, Christian, 2005. "The impact of industry classification schemes on financial research," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2005-062, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    11. Ishtiaq Ahmad & Judit Oláh & József Popp & Domicián Máté, 2018. "Does Business Group Affiliation Matter for Superior Performance? Evidence from Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Zura Kakushadze & Willie Yu, 2017. "Open Source Fundamental Industry Classification," Papers 1706.04210, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2017.
    13. Raveendra Chittoor & Prashant Kale & Phanish Puranam, 2015. "Business groups in developing capital markets: Towards a complementarity perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(9), pages 1277-1296, September.
    14. Christensen, Jesper Lindgaard, 2013. "The ability of current statistical classifications to separate services and manufacturing," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 47-60.
    15. Holmes, R. Michael & Hoskisson, Robert E. & Kim, Hicheon & Wan, William P. & Holcomb, Tim R., 2018. "International strategy and business groups: A review and future research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 134-150.
    16. Sougata Ray & Bikramjit Ray Chaudhuri, 2018. "Business Group Affiliation and Corporate Sustainability Strategies of Firms: An Investigation of Firms in India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 955-976, December.
    17. K. S. Manikandan & J. Ramachandran, 2015. "Beyond institutional voids: Business groups, incomplete markets, and organizational form," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 598-617, April.
    18. Kali, Raja & Sarkar, Jayati, 2011. "Diversification and tunneling: Evidence from Indian business groups," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 349-367, September.
    19. Lisa Baudot & Zhongwei Huang & Dana Wallace, 2021. "Stakeholder Perceptions of Risk in Mandatory Corporate Responsibility Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 151-174, August.
    20. Wadhwa, Kavita & Syamala, Sudhakara Reddy, 2023. "Are business groups different from other family firms? Evidence from corporate investments during political uncertainty," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    21. Banerjee, Pradip & Dhole, Sandip & Mishra, Sagarika, 2023. "Operating performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Is there a business group advantage?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2561-:d:228030. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.