Business group persistence and institutional maturity: the role of management practices.

A widely accepted account of business group (BG) functioning suggests that this common corporate form will dismantle and restructure with the progressive maturity of market-supporting institutions. However, even in mature institutional settings, BGs appear to persists and thrive. We hypothesize that BG persistence arises from an evolving competitive advantage because their competitive advantages with certain types of management practices do not decay with institutional development. We test our hypothesis with data assembled in the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES). Empirical results show that several bundles of management practice differentiate BG affiliates and independent firms in the early phase of development but become less prominent at later stages. However, some of the differences in management practice bundles disappear, but others continue to differentiate independent firms and group affiliates in mature institutional jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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