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Research on diversification has produced insights into possible linkages between organizational scale and scope and firm performance. However, the paucity of research on strategy implementation has hindered our understanding of the broader performance implications of diversification. We extend the resource-based view and diversification research by examining how firms can exploit diversifying investments designed to achieve scale and scope economies. Successful firms more effectively structure their resource portfolio, bundle resources into capabilities, and leverage these capabilities when implementing a diversification strategy. We develop a model linking strategies by which firms expand product and geographic market scope to the actions they take to manage resources. We examine three actions – internal development, acquisitions, and strategic alliances – and discuss the implications of these actions using the resource management framework.

What are the social and ecological roots of export diversification in the developing world? On the one hand, I attribute the growth of nontraditional, manufactured exports from the Dominican Republic to the traditional agro-export elite's use of free trade zones to offset the consequences of urban biased, import-substituting industrialization in the 1970s, and thereby portray diversification as an incremental response to government predation rather than a coherent product of government planning. On the other hand, I hold that the nature, timing, and location of the nontraditional export supply response have necessarily been circumscribed by preexisting social and ecological circumstances, and thereby underscore the structural impediments to similar diversification efforts elsewhere in the developing world. My findings are of both theoretical relevance and policy import, for they serve to underscore the limitations to the regnant neoliberal development orthodoxy as well as the available sociological alternatives.

This chapter reports a study that investigates the link between rural small firms’ social networks and their market diversification strategies in the context of the Internet.

Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 142 Scottish small rural and urban firm owners in May 2012. The purpose of the telephone interviews was to understand how Internet usage impacted on the social networks and market diversification experiences of small rural firms. Analysis of the categorical data was performed using a variety of established methods.

Internet usage for many small Scottish rural firms was facilitating both their market reach and social networks. In addition, small rural firms’ most important social network contacts are highly correlated to their origin of sales, and this can be either locally or extra-locally based.

A positive relationship between Internet usage, social networks and market reach expansion offers support for further developing and improving the Internet infrastructure of rural communities.

Internet usage emerges as a critical tool for augmenting the social networks of Scottish rural small firms, which in turn helps to extend their market reach activities.

This chapter presents a personal research journey starting from my interest in firms’ decision-making within the tradition of the behavioral theory of the firm to discovering mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as an ideal decision context to advance the theory. Using my two articles published in the Academy of Management Journal as examples, I showcase how to leverage the specific attributes of M&A together with the institutional context in which they occur to develop and test new theories. Each paper addresses a distinctive research question and provides a unique angle of theoretical insights to the theory of decision-making. In particular, I was able to dig deeper into the mechanisms of institutional logic, power, and coalition building for explaining how firms make strategic decisions, all owing to the significance and versatility of M&A.

The study evaluated the interlinkages and diversification opportunities in the context of emerging bond markets from 2007:1 to 2020:5, using the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and sub‐period analyses to compare BRIC (2007:1–2010:11) and BRICS (2010:12–2020:5) regimes. As indicated by the breaking unit‐root test, dummies for the global financial crisis and COVID‐19 were incorporated in the analyses. VAR results showed that the Indian bond market responds positively to the previous change in the Chinese bond market during the BRIC era while BRICS bond markets are mostly uninfluenced by prior behavior patterns of one another. These suggested that the diversification opportunity has been increased following the admission of South Africa to the league. In addition, variance decomposition and impulse response provide proofs to suggest that BRICS bond markets are more exogenous and independent compared to what is obtained during the BRIC period. Consequently, the authors concluded that the BRICS bloc has provided greater diversification opportunities for emerging markets’ bondholders in the recent past.

Purpose – This study focuses on the relationship between local governments and public sector joint ventures (JVs). Public sector JVs are separate administrative entities that undertake public service activities on behalf of local governments. The aim of this study is to examine the vertical management control packages that are used by local governments to control the relationship with their public sector JVs.

Design/methodology/approach – Two case studies have been conducted in two public sector JVs, owned jointly by more than 20 local governments. The analysis of the two cases is informed by an integrated conceptual framework describing how transactional and relational factors influence control, trust, and risk in the context of public sector JVs.

Findings – The case studies provide a nuanced understanding of the interplay between the vertical management control packages, trust between the parents and the public sector JVs, and risks as perceived by the local governments. The case findings not only reveal how local governments struggle with adequate outcome control but also highlight how and why they rely on behavioral control. A related finding is that while the probability of poor business performance does not have a significant impact on the design of the vertical control packages, the social impact of failure has the potential to create a sense of urgency with regard to changes in the design of vertical management control packages.

Originality/value – This study adds to the literature on interorganizational relationships by providing insight into the use of vertical management control packages in the specific, but relevant, setting of public sector JVs.

In situation of uncertainty, many companies refuse today to bind their destiny to the fate of a specific territory. Nevertheless territories are engaged in trajectories that result from their industrial history and legacies. Companies are significant actors in structuring a given territory. Their territorial footprint is plural: industrial, organisational, psycho-cultural, environmental and political. It creates trajectories, hysteresis effects and irreversibility. We will mobilise cognitive approaches and more singularly the evolutionary approach to appreciate the territorial print of a given company. We focus on the Defence industry in Brest region (Brittany, France), a singular territory formatted by the naval shipyard industry. This latter has been involved in deep reorganisations since the beginning of the 1990s. This leads to many questions about possible industrial diversification and how to rebuild a cognitive trajectory of such territory by involving local authorities and the civil society.

Research on internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs) has received an increasing attention in the international management field. A central argument in a majority of these studies is that the internationalization of EMFs is different from that of firms from developed economies, and existing internationalization theories are insufficient to fully explain this new phenomenon. We conduct a critical review of important studies on the internationalization of EMFs to address two related questions. First, is the internationalization of EMFs really a new phenomenon, never been witnessed in the past? Second, does it warrant new theoretical developments? Our review suggests that there are important variations in the internationalization strategies of EMFs and developed economy firms, within EMFs from different emerging economies, and during different time periods. A thorough understanding of motivations, paths, processes, and performances of EMFs does require new theoretical approaches that can take into account the unique aspects of EMFs.

Tourism and hospitality have experienced strong diversification during the past few years. One of the latest trends in the field of nature-based tourism is the phenomenon of tree house hotels. The unique character of these hotels appeals not only to childhood memories but fulfills desires of adventure and novelty, romanticism, and uniqueness. The restorative power of nature is examined in this setting and the evidence suggests there are physiological and psychological benefits from forest recreation and sleeping in treetops. Surveys of potential clients, actual guests, and tree house hoteliers gave new insights into the perception of tree house accommodation and an understanding in the choice and provision of tree house hotels. The findings suggest that tree house hotels respond to a human need in urbanized societies to reconnect with nature and gain relaxation, restored health, and well-being. Environmentally friendly and noninvasive, this new form of hospitality may well stimulate sustainable tourism policymaking based on increasing human interaction with the forest ecosystem services that nature provides.

This chapter is part of a broader research project on popular culture tourism that is designed to explore new destination branding strategies that utilize cultural resources as a key strategy. This study promotes the role of urban cultural attractions as an additional significant resource category for destination development. Through the arrival of new and diversified cultural experiences, destinations such as Australia can improve their existing tourism portfolios. The study is concerned with qualitative aspects of the cultural economy, namely the subjective experiences and expectations of past, existing, and potential tourists. It offers recommendations and comments on the use of alternative cultural attractions in national tourism campaigns.