純粋持株会社は日本企業をどう変化させたのか

抄録

The number of Japanese firms adopting a pure holding company system has increased since changes to the anti-trust law in 1997. This study investigates how adopting the pure holding company system changes the management of Japanese firms. Since the changes in anti-trust laws, many researchers have highlighted the merits of a pure holding company, such as efficient internal capital market, easy Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), and easy divestiture. This study expects that adopting the pure holding company form drastically changes the scales of business departments, which enhances their performance, that is, a pure holding company results in the corporate restructuring of business departments.
The results of the empirical study reveal the following four facts. First, firms with lower performance tend to adopt the pure holding company system. Second, firms adopting thepure holding company tend to reduce the scale of major business segments, which lower firm performance. These results indicate that Japanese firms adopt the pure holding company system to reduce the scale of major business segments with lower performance. Third, M&As increase the scale of non-major business segments; in other words, they increase product diversification. Simultaneously, firms adopting the pure holding company system do not increase the number of M&As after adoption. Although M&As contribute to the growth of non-major business segments, firms adopting a pure holding company system do not increase the number of M&As after adoption. Finally, the decrease of major business segments improves the performance of firms with a pure holding company system.