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Diversification and desynchronicity: An organizational portfolio perspective on corporate risk reduction

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Shao, XF 
Gouliamos, K 
Luo, BNF 
Satchell, S 

Abstract

jats:pA longstanding objective of managers is to reduce risk to their businesses. The conventional strategy for risk reduction is diversification; however, evidence for the effectiveness of diversification remains inconclusive. According to Organizational Portfolio Analysis, firms are viewed as portfolios of business units, and the key to risk reduction is both diversification and synchronization compensation. This study introduces “desynchronicity”, a process that operationalizes synchronization compensation by assessing the degree of correlation between income streams of business units. Two samples of 737 and 332 firms (from COMPUSTAT) were used to empirically test the relationships between diversification and risk, and desynchronicity and risk. The results show that diversification alone will not always lead to a lower corporate risk. To reduce risk, firms also need to consider the desynchronicity of their business portfolios. Other practical implications include improved decisions on portfolio composition.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

3502 Banking, Finance and Investment, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour

Journal Title

Risks

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2227-9091
2227-9091

Volume Title

8

Publisher

MDPI AG