Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
The relationship between diversification and strategic risk taking behavior, measured as horizontal expansion in a turbulent environment, is explored through interviews with senior executives in eighteen cable television companies. The interviews reveal three mechanisms through which diversification discouraged risk taking behavior. First, due to information processing constraints, corporate executives in companies engaged in unrelated diversification had lessknowledge of cable industry dynamics than their counterparts in focused firms, and consequently perceived a greater level of competitive risk. Second, consistent with a hypothesis that performance evaluation and reward systems in diversified companies encourage conservative behavior by risk averse division managers, cable division managers almost never championed aggressive expansion programs; when diversified companies undertook such programs, they invariably were initiated by the corporate office. Third, institutional survival was viewed as a paramount priority in most of the sample companies, but this had different implications for risk taking in focused and diversified firms. In focused firms, a desire to perpetuate the institution reduced the likelihood that the company would be sold. In diversified companies, only older segments in the portfolio were considered to be part of the

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Diversification and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 41

Get Book Here

Book Description
The relationship between diversification and strategic risk taking behavior, measured as horizontal expansion in a turbulent environment, is explored through interviews with senior executives in eighteen cable television companies. The interviews reveal three mechanisms through which diversification discouraged risk taking behavior. First, due to information processing constraints, corporate executives in companies engaged in unrelated diversification had lessknowledge of cable industry dynamics than their counterparts in focused firms, and consequently perceived a greater level of competitive risk. Second, consistent with a hypothesis that performance evaluation and reward systems in diversified companies encourage conservative behavior by risk averse division managers, cable division managers almost never championed aggressive expansion programs; when diversified companies undertook such programs, they invariably were initiated by the corporate office. Third, institutional survival was viewed as a paramount priority in most of the sample companies, but this had different implications for risk taking in focused and diversified firms. In focused firms, a desire to perpetuate the institution reduced the likelihood that the company would be sold. In diversified companies, only older segments in the portfolio were considered to be part of the

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Organizational Form and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This paper explores the relationship between a firm's organizational form and its strategic risk taking behavior, measured as its propensity to expand horizontally in the face of increasing levels of environmental turbulence. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of 1986-1995 data for 201 U.S. cable television companies indicates that after controlling for factors such as company scale, two dimensions of organizational form -- a firm's level of diversification, and its CEO's status as an agent versus owner-manager -- predict a company's propensity to either expand horizontally through acquisition or to exit the cable industry (which is interpreted as risk avoidance behavior). The relationship between management equity ownership and risk taking behavior is positive and unambiguous: as turbulence increases, compared to agent-led companies, owner-managed firms exhibit a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a reduced propensity to exit the cable industry. The relationship between diversification and risk taking behavior is more complex: as turbulence increases, compared to firms focused exclusively on the cable business, firms engaged in unrelated diversification outside of cable exhibit both a greater propensity to expand horizontally and a greater propensity to exit the cable industry. In other words, compared to focused firms, in the face of increasing turbulence, diversified companies are likely to take strategicaction of some sort; they are less likely to idle. Drawing on agency theory, hypotheses are advanced that may explain this somewhat counterintuitive finding.

Governance and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry

Governance and Risk Taking in the U.S. Cable Television Industry PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
The relationship between governance structure and strategic risk taking behavior, measured as horizontal expansion in a turbulent environment, is explored through interviews with senior executives in eighteen cable television companies. The interviews reveal several mechanisms through which CEO equity ownership encourages risk taking behavior. First, while a failed expansion strategy may have serious personal consequences for both owner-managers (whose wealth is largely undiversified) and agent CEOs (who have reputations and hence human capital at stake), a successful strategy offers a substantially greater personal payoff for owner-managers. Second, secure in their positions by virtue of influence over their boards, owner-managers feel less obliged to justify risky expansion strategies to board members and other senior managers, and thus may gamble on intuition. By contrast, agent CEOs, who are held publicly accountable for their decisions, must marshal a persuasive case when sponsoring risky expansion strategies. Since doing so is difficult in a turbulent environment, agent CEOs may avoid such strategies. Third, owner-managers' strong emotional attachment to their companies often implies that proposals to sell their firms never receive serious consideration. Finally, outside investors2 risk preferences encourage aggressive expansion by owner-managed limited partnerships, and conservative behavior in agent-led firms owned by family trusts.

Diversification and Market Power in the US Cable TV Industry

Diversification and Market Power in the US Cable TV Industry PDF Author: Brihima Fofana
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


Determinants of Cable System Product Diversification

Determinants of Cable System Product Diversification PDF Author: Fang Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cable television
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description


Public Policy Toward Cable Television

Public Policy Toward Cable Television PDF Author: Thomas W. Hazlett
Publisher: American Enterprise Institute
ISBN: 9780844740690
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book analyzes the effectiveness of the federal government's vacillating regulatory policy toward the cable television industry.

Competitive Problems in the Cable Television Industry

Competitive Problems in the Cable Television Industry PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Antitrust law
Languages : en
Pages : 658

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Book Description


Competitive Strategy for Media Firms

Competitive Strategy for Media Firms PDF Author: Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135617147
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Introduces the concepts and analytical frameworks of strategic and brand management, and illustrates how they can be adapted according to the characteristics of distinct media products. This book provides empirical examinations of broadcast, multichannel media, enhanced television, broadband communications, and global media conglomerate markets.

The U.S. Cable Television Industry, 1948-1995

The U.S. Cable Television Industry, 1948-1995 PDF Author: Thomas R. Eisenmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
Chandler observed that under managerial capitalism, salaried managers tended to pursue policies that promoted the long-term stability and growth of their enterprises. The U.S. cable television industry provides a case study of how managers responded when stability and growth were mutually consistent objectives, and when they were mutually exclusive. From the late 1950s through the early 1980s, agent-led newspaper publishers and television broadcasters invested aggressively in the cable business. Cable provided an outlet for reinvesting profits from their core businesses, where growth opportunities were limited. At the same time, these media companies increased their long-term stability by diversifying into cable, because cable threatened to cannibalize their core businesses. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, investing in cable implied a tradeoff between stability and growth objectives. As a wave of mergers swept the cable industry, agent-led companies avoided acquisitions. Managers were concerned that acquisitions would dilute earnings and thus depress their stock prices, and that diverting capital from other divisions would precipitate disruptive internal conflict. Confronting an increasingly turbulent competitive environment during the first half of the 1990s, agent-led companies were much more likely to divest cable assets than owner-managed firms. In agent-led companies, managers believed that their cable units would require massive capital investments, and they were reluctant to "bet the company" on a business facing so much competitive, technological, and regulatory uncertainty. Owner-managers, emotionally attached to the cable industry and to the firms they had built, and often harboring dynastic ambitions, were more reluctant to sell: they were willing to gamble on growth.

From Resource Allocation to Strategy

From Resource Allocation to Strategy PDF Author: Joseph L. Bower
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019151540X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 504

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Book Description
Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company's competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book's five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today's competitive world.