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Cited by 2,772

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 18 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers

Amihud, Yakov, Lev, Baruch·1981·The Bell Journal of Economics

Abstract

A conglomerate merger generally leads, through the diversification effect, to reduced risk for the combined entity. As is well known, in perfect capital markets such risk reduction will not be beneficial to stockholders, since they can achieve on their own the preferred degree of risk in their "homemade" portfolios. What, then, is the motive for the widespread and persisting phenomenon of conglomerate mergers? In this study a "managerial" motive for conglomerate merger is advanced and tested. Specifically, managers, as opposed to investors, are hypothesized to engage in conglomerate mergers to decrease their largely undiversifiable "employment risk" (i.e., risk of losing job, professional reputation, etc.). Such risk-reduction activities are considered here as managerial perquisites in the context of the agency cost model. This hypothesis about conglomerate merger motivation is empirically examined in two different tests and found to be consistent with the data.

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Metadata

Authors
Amihud, Y., & Lev, B.
Venue
The Bell Journal of Economics
Publisher
JSTOR
Published
1981
Volume
12
Issue
2
Pages
605
ISSN
0361-915X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1531341052
Cited by
2,772
References
18
FWCI
29.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/3003575
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Amihud, Y., & Lev, B. (1981). Risk Reduction as a Managerial Motive for Conglomerate Mergers. The Bell Journal of Economics. https://doi.org/10.2307/3003575

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