What a firm produces matters: diversification, coherence and performance of Indian manufacturing firms
G. Dosi, Nanditha Mathew & Emanuele Pugliese
#2019-013
Economic growth and development of a country involves accumulation of
knowledge and dynamic capabilities (Cimoli et al., 2009). Past research
has begun to investigate the capability accumulation and macro-economic
development of countries and sectors (Dosi et al., 1990), also by means
of introduction of new products (Hausmann and Rodrik, 2003). In this
work, recognizing that firms are the actual domain in which production
takes place, we focus on the firm-level process of capability
accumulation and diversification in a developing country. We investigate
the relationship between diversification (and coherent diversification)
and firm performance by employing an extensive database of Indian
manufacturing firms with detailed information on product mix of firms.
We claim that such an understanding of firms' incentives to diversify is
relevant not only for the corporate management, but also for the
diversification of countries and thereby its development.
First, we explore the reasons behind firms' strategy to diversify, i.e,
which firms choose a broad product scope and whether the change in the
scope of the firm results in improved performance in terms of firm
profitability and sales growth. Second, we look at the idiosyncratic
characteristics of different products, by emphasizing the synergies of a
product line with respect to the overall product basket of the firm. In
this line, we develop a measure that captures the synergies and
economies of scope between different products, and observe that the
firms' future performance crucially depend on the interactions between
the products that comprise its basket. Overall, our results are
consistent with an intangible- capabilities model of firm
diversification: diversification results in improved firm performance if
the firm has underused capabilities and the new production line is able
to exploit them.
JEL Classification: L25, L60, O30
Keywords: Diversification, Coherence, Endogenous Switching