Does International Diversification Matter?

Date

Friday, April 18, 2008

Description

Dr. Tamer Cavusgil will give a seminar on the preliminary findings for a meta analysis of multinationality and firm performance.

Much scholarly work has been devoted to studying the performance implications of multinationality (also referred to as international diversification). This presentation will report on a meta-analysis designed to reveal empirical generalizations from this vast body of evidence. While multinationality is found to be positively associated with overall firm performance, contextual analysis reveals even more interesting findings. Multinationality-performance relationship is found to be stronger for multinationals from European and Japanese multinationals. Firms in manufacturing industries benefit more from internationalization than firms in service industries. Bivariate results also indicate that multinationality-performance relationship is stronger for the period preceding 1980. Finally, the results indicate that multinationality positively affects performance during both the early and late stages of internationalization. Positive effects of multinationality are strongest for firms with moderate levels of internationalization.

Location

Oakland University