The Development of Business Groups: An International Comparison

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23530467
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Business administration
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Hikiho Takashi 京都大学, 経営学研究科, 客員教授 (50301825)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): COLPAN Asli 京都大学, 経営管理大学院, 准教授 (70511286)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: ビジネス・グループ / 事業部制組織 / 組織内能力 / 競争資産 / 長期経済成長

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Business groups have been conventionally assumed to have played a significant and positive role in enhancing the competitiveness of large enterprises only in emerging economies. Business groups may rely on unrelated diversification, when economic settings remain not competitive. The present research project has identified the intra-firm factor of accumulated competitive resources and dynamic capabilities to elevate business groups to compete in competitive markets. Those resources and capabilities are different from the product-specific ones that have been usually identified in mature industrial economies. They rather are product-transcending and related to such functions as finance, human resources, marketing, and management. Based on the application of these capabilities, family-controlled groups in Europe and value-investing conglomerates in the United State have sustained their competitiveness in contemporary economy.

Free Research Field

経営学