An Empirical Research On Chinese Listed Corporations' Diversification And Performance Based On The Institutional Perspective

Diversification has been a hot theoretical and empirical issue in the field of strategic management. Most of the listed companies in China choose diversification strategy, which is quite different from that of the refocusing strategy in western countries in the 1980s. For better explanation to this phenomenon, special institutional background in the transitional economy and a new perspective of strategic view based on the institution should be considered in addition to the emphasis on industrial structure and the firm' s resource. This paper is just the reflection of the previous research on the western diversification strategy and view on the Chinese enterprises' diversification strategy in particular market environment and institutional background.This paper introduces the institutional factors as endogenous variables into the mainstream diversification theory in this research, studies the influence of the institutional factor on the diversification management for the Chinese listed companies and the interaction relationship of the diversification and firm' s performance, which is an attempt to setting up strategic management system suitable to Chinese enterprises. The paper is organized as the following:Chapter 1 is the introduction. Research background, research scope, the definition of related concepts, research content and the overall framework of the study, research methods and the possible points of innovation are put forward. Chapter 2 is the literature review of the previous theoretical and empirical research on influential factors of diversification, diversification strategy and firm' s performance, summarizing the contributions and limitations for the following research. Chapter 3 is the description of the conceptual framework from the perspective of the institution-based view. This research introduces the "institutional factor—strategic behavior—firm' s performance" into a comprehensive framework and analyzes the relationship of diversification strategy and firm' s performance on the institutional level. Chapter 4 proposes some hypotheses on the relationship between the institutional factors, corporate diversification strategy and firm' s performance considering the special institution transition background, explains the survey sample, data resource, statistical methods, definition of variables and proposes the framework for empirical analysis. Chapter 5 tests the hypotheses and explores the possible reason for the supported and not supported hypotheses. Chapter 6 is the summarization of the whole paper, gives the research limitations and advice for future research.The innovation points of the research are as the following:1. This paper introduces the institutional theory and methods of institutional analysis into the field of strategic management and proposes a new perspective for the research on the Chinese firms' diversification strategy—the institution-based view.2. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework from the perspective of "institutional factor—strategic behavior—firm' s performance" in the background of Chinese special institution, and attempts to find mediating variable for the influence of institution transition on firm' s performance.3. This paper tests the institutional factors such as government intervention, political resources, regional marketing process and corporate Governance on diversification strategy and firm' s performance with empirical methods.