Prior work on the performance consequences of corporate diversification has treated
all powerful owners as seeking the same benefits from diversification (i.e, higher profit
rather than growth) and therefore limiting value appropriation by other stakeholders
such as employees and managers. In contrast, we distinguish between domestic “relational”
owners and foreign “transactional” owners in Japanese corporations. Although
transactional owners do indeed prioritize profitability when diversifying,
relational owners primarily seek growth rather than profits from diversification.
Furthermore, relational owners also allow managers and employees to appropriate
more of the rents arising from diversification than do transactional owners.