Diversification and Corporate Governance

This article addresses the impact of governance structure on diversification behavior. Hypotheses are developed regarding the differences in diversification strategy of cooperatives and stock listed companies. The analysis shows that stock listed companies are more diversified than cooperatives, related as well as unrelated.diversification;cooperatives;governance structure;stock listed companies

Diversification and Corporate Governance

This article addresses the impact of governance structure on diversification behavior. Hypotheses are developed regarding the differences in diversification strategy of cooperatives and stock listed companies. The analysis shows that stock listed companies are more diversified than cooperatives, related as well as unrelated

Governance Structure, Product Diversification, and Performance

Product diversification and its financial outcomes have been studied exhaustively. However, previous literature has focused on corporations, ignoring other important legal organizations or governance structures. In this paper, we study the diversification strategies of cooperatives and compare them with corporations. We develop hypotheses that predict that cooperatives differ from corporations with respect to the extent, type, and performance of product diversification. Data obtained from a sample of 118 cooperatives and corporations are used to test the hypotheses. We find significant differences between cooperatives and corporations. Therefore, our main conclusion is that governance structure does matter for product diversification and its performance. Other governance structures, besides corporations and cooperatives, and their influence in other areas, besides product diversification, could be promising directions for future research

Accommodating Two Worlds in One Organization: Changing Board Models in Agricultural Cooperatives

While most economic organisation literature on cooperatives has focused on changes in income rights, we study changes in the allocation of decision rights between board of directors (representing members) and managers. The traditional role of the board is to direct the activities of the managers. However, professional management increasingly makes most strategic decisions, pushing the board into a supervisory role. We present two groups of findings on changing board – management relationships. We identify three corporate governance models: traditional model, management model, and corporation model, and we present an empirical illustration showing a relationship between the choice of board model and product portfolio and performance