Better late than never? A comparative case study of late diversification strategies

Age and firm’s diversification is a poorly studied relationship. The following work aims to fulfil this gap, by means of a sample of ten mature companies that decide to embark on a late diversification strategy. First, will be presented relevant theories in the explanations of the results such as family influence, maturity of product and industry, and niche market, even if other important affecting factors will come out during the firms’ examination. The subsequent diversification and firm life cycle literature will be addressed discovering that the varied and discordant opinions find foundation in the different firms’ behaviour. However, the most accredited conclusion that old firms diversify less and in related sectors is rejected as well that related diversification performs better than unrelated one. On the other hand, the major belief that a diversification enterprise has more advantages than a focused one is confirmed.