An institutional perspective on corporate restructuring of business groups in emerging economies

Abstract

Corporate restructuring has been a major response of business groups, which are the leading economic players in emerging economies, to the market transition. We develop an institutional perspective of restructuring to understand how business groups' acquisition and divestment in unrelated industries are shaped by the prevailing and potentially conflicting institutional logics during market transition. A pooled panel analysis of the largest business groups in Taiwan between 1986 and 1998 supports our framework, after controlling for the economic baselines. This study contributes to the research on corporate restructuring, the institutional analysis of organizations, and the study of business groups.