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date: 22 September 2020

Abstract and Keywords

The aim of this article is to examine recent developments in the strategies of diversified business groups. It assesses the business group strategy by focusing on two prominent areas of growth: product diversification and geographic diversification. It thus attempts to identify the ways in which these strategies have been developed by business groups in the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. The main focus of this article is diversification, rather than other strategic issues, although these are clearly interrelated elements. Also, as it deals with business groups at the turn of the century, these groups are often operating in business environments where liberalization and privatization are part of the main goals of policy-makers, which contrasts with developed-country markets, where the institutional underlay of competitive markets has been a feature of these economies for a much longer period.

Keywords: business groups, product diversification, geographic diversification, policy-makers, developed-country markets

Andrew Delios

Andrew Delios is Professor in the Department of Strategy and Policy, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore. His research interests include corporate strategy, international management, and especially foreign direct investment and global competition issues in emerging economies and international strategies of Japanese multinational corporations. His research has been published in such journals as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management.

Xufei Ma

Xufei Ma is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. His research interests include strategic management and international business, especially multinational firms' strategies in emerging markets, the internationalization of Chinese firms, and the strategy and governance of Chinese business groups. His research has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, International Business Review, Journal of Business Research, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management.

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