The Institutionalization of Divestitures: A Meta-Analysis of Stock Market Performance

Divestiture Motives.- Theoretical Background of the Study.- Development of Hypotheses.- Methods.- Results.- Discussion and Conclusion.

Dr. Miriam Flickinger promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Rolf Bühner am Lehrstuhl für Organisation und Personalwesen der Universität Passau. Sie ist als Strategiereferentin HR bei der BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, tätig.

Restructuring and, therein, divestitures have become an indispensable element of corporate strategy for many firms. Divestitures, defined as a firm’s decision to dispose of a significant portion of its assets, can increase a firm’s strength by changing its asset structure and its resource allocation patterns.

Miriam Flickinger investigates the stock market reaction to divestiture announcements from an institutionally-based perspective. In the spirit of organizational theory, this perspective applies the processes of institutionalization to capital markets. It analyzes how organizational practices and policies are perceived by a capital market in which socio-organizational factors play an influential role. Using meta-analytic procedures, the author extends the present financially dominated understanding of divestiture performance implications and offers a new rationale to why shareholders consider divestitures positively. Results show that divestitures are socially embedded when the value of a firm’s divestiture depends on the prevailing institutional logics within the business society.