IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17428.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Liberalisation, Concentration and Diversification: Business Groups in India, 2000-2020

Author

Listed:
  • Commander, Simon

    (IE Business School, Altura Partners)

  • Estrin, Saul

    (London School of Economics)

  • Thomas, Naveen

    (O.P. Jindal Global University)

  • Lingineni, Varun

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

We analyse changes in market structure in India between 2000 and 2020 using a rich dataset at high levels of disaggregation. We examine the extent to which business groups – notably family-owned groups – have maintained dominant market positions in the Indian economy. We focus on two key dimensions. The first is the extent of concentration in markets and market shares by industry. The second concerns the dynamics and the extent to which business groups have focussed on consolidating their position in specific, narrow sectors or, rather, entered new sectors and diversified. We find that while market concentration has been falling, a bloc of high concentration sectors remains. Further, diversification has been actively pursued across sectors by most business groups. While this points to greater competition among business groups, the ratio of revenues to variable costs – a measure of the markup – has shifted upwards, particularly after 2013. The weight and persistence of these large business groups in the economy, as measured by the ratio of their revenues to GDP, has also increased. Finally, we discuss possible policy options.

Suggested Citation

  • Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul & Thomas, Naveen & Lingineni, Varun, 2024. "Liberalisation, Concentration and Diversification: Business Groups in India, 2000-2020," IZA Discussion Papers 17428, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17428.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacquemin, Alexis P & Berry, Charles H, 1979. "Entropy Measure of Diversification and Corporate Growth," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 359-369, June.
    2. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2004. "Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 91-134.
    3. Tarun Khanna & Yishay Yafeh, 2007. "Business Groups in Emerging Markets: Paragons or Parasites?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 331-372, June.
    4. Matias Covarrubias & Germán Gutiérrez & Thomas Philippon, 2019. "From Good to Bad Concentration? US Industries over the Past 30 Years," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2019, volume 34, pages 1-46, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Aditya Bhattacharjea, 2022. "Industrial policy in India since independence," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 565-598, December.
    6. Devesh Kapur, 2020. "Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and Succeed?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 31-54, Winter.
    7. Michael Carney & Marc van Essen & Saul Estrin & Daniel Shapiro, 2018. "Business Groups reconsidered : beyond paragons and parasites," Post-Print hal-02312099, HAL.
    8. Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul, 2023. "Coordinating Success, Predicting Failure? Why the Market vs State Debate Misses the Mark in Asia," IZA Policy Papers 202, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. Estrin, Saul & Hanousek, Jan & Shamshur, Anastasiya, 2024. "Does it matter who owns firms? Evidence on the impact of supermajority control on private firms in Europe," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    2. Ying-Yu Chen & Yi-Long Jaw, 2014. "How do business groups’ small world networks effect diversification, innovation, and internationalization?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 1019-1044, December.
    3. Xavier, Wlamir Gonçalves & Bandeira-de-Mello, Rodrigo & Marcon, Rosilene, 2014. "Institutional environment and Business Groups' resilience in Brazil," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 900-907.
    4. Wioletta Mierzejewska & Maria Aluchna & Emilia Tomczyk, 2023. "Do coopetition and cohesion of business groups stimulate their innovation performance?," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 50(2), pages 153-168, June.
    5. Kabbach-de-Castro, Luiz Ricardo & Kirch, Guilherme & Matta, Rafael, 2022. "Do internal capital markets in business groups mitigate firms' financial constraints?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    6. Randolph Luca Bruno & Saul Estrin, 2021. "Taxonomies and Typologies: Starting to Reframe Economic Systems," Springer Books, in: Elodie Douarin & Oleh Havrylyshyn (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative Economics, edition 1, chapter 33, pages 871-896, Springer.
    7. Ki‐Hoon Lee & Donghoon Shin & Minwoo Lee, 2023. "Business group affiliation and corporate sustainability performance in emerging economies: Evidence from South Korea," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4503-4518, November.
    8. Rodriguez, Carlos & Torres, Jose, 2020. "Central coordination and profitability in large Latin American business groups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 599-609.
    9. Kyuho Jin, 2022. "Can Business Groups Survive Institutional Advancements? Examining the Role of Internal Market for Non-Tradable, Intangible Assets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, September.
    10. Saptarshi Purkayastha & Vikas Kumar & Jane Wenzhen Lu, 2017. "Business group heterogeneity and the internationalization-performance relationship: Evidence from Indian business groups," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 247-279, June.
    11. Anish Purkayastha & Vishal K. Gupta, 2023. "Business group affiliation and entrepreneurial orientation: Contingent effect of level of internationalization and firm’s performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 847-876, June.
    12. Carney, Michael & Estrin, Saul & Liang, Zhixiang & Shapiro, Daniel, 2022. "Are Latin American business groups different? An exploratory international political economy perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111821, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Joyce C. Wang & Jingtao Yi & Xiuping Zhang & Mike W. Peng, 2022. "Pyramidal Ownership and SOE Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1839-1868, November.
    14. Morck Randall K & Yeung Bernard, 2010. "Corporatism and the Ghost of the Third Way," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1-61, December.
    15. Commander, Simon & Estrin, Saul & De Silva, Thamashi, 2023. "Political connections, business groups and innovation in Asia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120082, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Frederick Kibon Changwony & Anthony Kwabena Kyiu, 2024. "Business strategies and corruption in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises: The impact of business group affiliation, external auditing, and international standards certification," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 95-121, January.
    17. Hsi-Mei Chung & Sven Dahms & Pao T. Kao, 2021. "Emerging Market Multinational Family Business Groups and the Use of Family Managers in Foreign Subsidiaries," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 57-89, March.
    18. Wu, Lichao & Wei, Yingqi & Wang, Chengang & McDonald, Frank & Han, Xia, 2022. "The importance of institutional and financial resources for export performance associated with technological innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    19. Shaleen Gopal & K. S. Manikandan & J. Ramachandran, 2021. "Are There Limits to Diversification in Emerging Economies? Distinguishing between Firm‐Level and Business Group Strategies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1532-1568, September.
    20. Jeoung Yul Lee & Shufeng (Simon) Xiao & Surender Munjal, 2023. "How business groups build globally relevant knowledge from local contexts? Exploring the double-edged sword effect of cultural diversity," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(5), pages 2189-2224, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    market concentration; India; business groups; Hirschman Herfindahl Indices; diversification;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp17428. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.