Corporate diversification: A universal construct across international boundaries?

Although diversification has been the subject of a large amount of research (Bettis & Hall, 1982; Dess, Gupta, Hennart, & Hill, 1995; Montgomery, 1985; Varadarajan & Ramanujam, 1987) very little consensus exists in the strategic management literature. One possible reason for such confusion is the incomplete conceptualization of the construct. The present study proposes the use of an international-based perspective of diversification. Utilizing a multinational sample comprised of firms from the United States, Japan, and Korea, we tested the relationships between a variety of diversification measures and firm performance. Results suggest that countries differ with regard to resource profiles and their inherent perspectives when diversifying.