Title: Choice of diversification strategies in an emerging market environment: an empirical evaluation

Authors: Aparna Bhatia; Anu Thakur

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India ' Department of Commerce, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India

Abstract: The paper compares the nature, extent and pattern of diversification of domestic companies with companies having multinational operations. A sample of 536 companies has been studied over three points of time, i.e. 2001, 2006 and 2011. Jacquemin-Berry entropy-index (1979) has been applied to measure diversification. Results suggest that domestic companies have larger extent of diversification as compared to companies with multi-national operations. Domestic as well as multi-national companies seem to prefer 'related diversification' to extreme choices of diversification. The pattern of diversification follows both forward and backward movement while companies with purely domestic operations have shown a greater trend towards forward pattern.

Keywords: diversification; nature; extent; pattern; related diversified; unrelated diversified; domestic companies; multi-national companies operating in India; Indian multi-national companies operating abroad; Jacquemin-Berry entropy-index; emerging market environment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2017.085108

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2017 Vol.19 No.1, pp.52 - 78

Received: 24 Jul 2015
Accepted: 25 Jan 2016
Published online: 12 Jul 2017 *

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