Impact of Business Integration on Corporate Restructuring and Performance

The impact of business groups (BGs) on the restructuring and business performance of subsidiaries has been an important feature of studies of Russian companies. The characteristic of this impact provides answers to two questions. The first is why BGs formed during the past decade remain an important part of the Russian industry and why their share continues to grow. An effort should be made to explain the emergence of major diversified amalgamations in an unstable institutional environment, which should aggravate an agency problem and cause the group performance to deteriorate. The second question is threefold and involves the following: first, the role that BGs played in Russian corporate restructuring during the past decade; second, whether they contributed to the increase of competitiveness by corporate restructuring or enabled enterprises to survive without profound restructuring; and finally, in the case of the success of BG member enterprises, whether this success was due to enhanced competitiveness of the companies or support from the authorities.