Business group performance, context, and strategy: A meta-analysis

Research on business groups ?legally independent firms tied together in a variety of formal and informal ways ?is accelerating, but four questions still lack a definitive answer: Does business group membership enhance or diminish firm performance? Are members comparatively better off in contexts characterized by institutional voids? Do members make different strategic choices than standalone firms, and do these choices mediate the affiliation ?performance relationship? Is group performance influenced by group level scale and scope differences? We address these questions with meta-analytical techniques, employed on a database of 125 published and unpublished studies covering 27 different countries.