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Business portfolio restructuring: a comprehensive bibliometric review

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Abstract

Business portfolio restructuring (BPR) has received considerable attention in the fields of management and finance. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies applying extensive qualitative and quantitative methods to BPR research. The aim of the present paper is to fill this gap by presenting the first complete bibliometric review of BPR research. In this work, for the first time, not only the extant literature published between 1993 and 2012 is analysed but also the most cited bibliographic references using bibliometric techniques. In this way, past and present academic contributions are reviewed. Four main results are forthcoming: first, a certain parallelism is found with bibliometric studies in strategic management. Second, the intellectual grounding for this field involves the subjects of economics, management and finance as its principal contributors. Third, the theoretical basis for the study of BPR mainly involves agency theory, transaction cost theory, and the resource-based view. Fourth, the financial crisis of 2008 explains an important part of current research priorities and trends among BPR scholars.

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Notes

  1. Bibexcel is now available at https://bibliometrie.univie.ac.at/bibexcel/.

  2. In both the first and the third stages, 31 and 33 works are chosen, respectively, given that they recorded the same degree of centrality as the thirtieth reference.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Wolfgang Glänzel, editor in chief of the journal Scientometrics and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments and suggestions on this paper. We also want to thank Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo for his helpful suggestions. This paper has been supported by Projects ECO2012-36775 and ECO2012-31358 from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain).

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  1. Universidad Espíritu Santo - Ecuador, Office 1.2, Edificio F, Campus de Samborondón, Km. 2.5 vía La Puntilla, Samborondón, Ecuador

    Angélica María Sánchez-Riofrío

  2. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Office 010, Edificio Departamental I, Campus de Vicalvaro, Paseo De Artilleros, s/n, 28032, Madrid, Spain

    Luis Ángel Guerras-Martín

  3. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Office 290, Edificio Departamental I, Campus de Vicalvaro, Paseo De Artilleros, s/n, 28032, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco Javier Forcadell

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Appendices

Appendix 1: 50 Most cited bibliographic references selected for the whole period (1993–2012)

Centrality

Article

Centrality

Article

0.73

Jensen (1986)

0.43

Bhagat et al. (1990)

0.58

Hoskisson and Johnson (1992)

0.43

Fama (1980)

0.58

Williamson (1975)

0.43

Murphy (1985)

0.58

Markides (1992)

0.43

Ravenscraft (1987)

0.58

Hoskisson and Turk (1990)

0.43

Bhide (1990)

0.55

Duhaime and Grant (1984)

0.43

Lehn and Poulsen (1989)

0.54

Hill and Hoskisson (1987)

0.43

Myers and Majluf (1984)

0.53

Williamson (1985)

0.43

Stulz (1990)

0.53

Porter (1987)

0.42

Baysinger and Hoskisson (1989)

0.53

Palepu (1985)

0.42

Montgomery and Thomas (1988)

0.53

Montgomery et al. (1984)

0.41

Hoskisson et al. (1993)

0.52

Jain (1985)

0.40

Hitt et al. (1990)

0.51

Penrose (1959)

0.39

Chatterjee and Wernerfelt (1991)

0.50

Jensen and Meckling (1976)

0.38

Williams et al. (1988)

0.48

Singh and Montgomery (1987)

0.38

Nelson and Winter (1982)

0.48

Amihud and Lev (1981)

0.37

Chatterjee (1986)

0.46

Fama and Jensen (1983)

0.37

Rumelt (1974)

0.45

Roll (1986)

0.37

Walsh and Seward (1990)

0.45

Hoskisson and Hitt (1988)

0.37

Jacquemin and Berry (1979)

0.45

Jensen and Ruback (1983)

0.36

Jemison and Sitkin (1986)

0.45

Morck et al. (1990)

0.34

Cohen and Levinthal (1990)

0.43

Jensen and Murphy (1990)

0.33

Hill and Snell (1988)

0.43

Bradley et al. (1988)

0.33

Lubatkin (1987)

0.43

Morck et al. (1988)

0.30

Shleifer and Vishny (1986)

0.43

Weisbach (1988)

0.30

Warner et al. (1988)

  1. The articles were selected according to the highest degree of centrality. For the whole list of references, the reader can contact to the corresponding author

Appendix 2: 30 Most cited bibliographic references selected in each stage

Stage 1: 1993–1997

Stage 2: 1998–2002

Stage 3: 2003–2007

Stage 4: 2008–2012

Cent.

Article

Cent.

Article

Cent.

Article

Cent.

Article

0.86

Jensen (1986)

0.64

Comment and Jarrell (1995)

0.56

John and Ofek (1995)

0.64

Lang et al. (1995)

0.73

Hill and Hoskisson (1987)

0.57

John and Ofek (1995)

0.51

Jensen (1986)

0.56

Berger and Ofek (1995)

0.73

Hoskisson and Turk (1990)

0.56

Berger and Ofek (1995)

0.48

Berger and Ofek (1995)

0.55

Jensen (1986)

0.71

Palepu (1985)

0.56

Williamson (1975)

0.43

Lang and Stultz (1994)

0.51

Comment and Jarrell (1995)

0.71

Williamson (1985)

0.48

Palepu (1985)

0.42

Hite et al. (1987)

0.51

John and Ofek (1995)

0.70

Hoskisson and Hitt (1988)

0.48

Denis et al. (1997)

0.41

Lang et al. (1995)

0.48

Berger and Ofek (1999)

0.70

Hoskisson and Johnson (1992)

0.48

Markides (1992)

0.39

Jain (1985)

0.46

Bergh (1995)

0.70

Markides (1992)

0.47

Amihud and Lev (1981)

0.38

Graham et al. (2002)

0.46

Maksimovic and Phillips (2001)

0.68

Baysinger and Hoskisson (1989)

0.47

Lang and Stultz (1994)

0.38

Amihud and Lev (1981)

0.45

Shleifer and Vishny (1992)

0.67

Duhaime and Grant (1984)

0.46

Hite et al. (1987)

0.37

Daley et al. (1997)

0.42

Desai and Jain (1999)

0.67

Jain (1985)

0.46

Shleifer and Vishny (1992)

0.37

Servaes (1996)

0.42

Hite et al. (1987)

0.64

Williams et al. (1988)

0.45

Cusatis et al. (1993)

0.37

Denis et al. (1997)

0.41

Schlingemann et al. (2002)

0.63

Hill and Snell (1989)

0.44

Hoskisson and Johnson (1992)

0.36

Alexander et al. (1984)

0.41

Jain (1985)

0.61

Kosnik (1990)

0.41

Rumelt (1974)

0.36

Comment and Jarrell (1995)

0.40

Dittmar and Shivdasani (2003)

0.63

Williamson (1975)

0.40

Bhide (1990)

0.34

Morck et al. (1988)

0.40

Krishnaswami and Subramaniam (1999)

0.59

Roll (1986)

0.40

Jensen and Murphy (1990)

0.32

Kaplan and Weisbach (1992)

0.40

Lang and Stultz (1994)

0.59

Jensen and Meckling (1976)

0.40

Jensen (1993)

0.32

Jensen and Meckling (1976)

0.39

Graham et al. (2002)

0.57

Hill and Snell (1988)

0.40

Morck et al. (1990)

0.32

Ravenscraft (1987)

0.36

Campa and Kedia (2002)

0.54

Montgomery et al. (1984)

0.40

Aron (1988)

0.32

Shleifer and Vishny (1989)

0.36

Denis et al. (1997)

0.53

Hoskisson et al. (1993)

0.40

Boot (1992)

0.32

Jensen (1993)

0.36

Lins and Servaes (1999)

0.51

Hitt et al. (1990)

0.40

Matsusaka (1993)

0.31

Scharfstein and Stein (2000)

0.36

Rajan et al. (2000)

0.49

Hermalin and Weisbach (1988)

0.40

Slovin et al. (1995)

0.31

Stein (1997)

0.36

Servaes (1996)

0.49

Weisbach (1988)

0.37

Singh and Montgomery (1987)

0.31

White (1980)

0.36

Jensen and Meckling (1976)

0.48

Morck et al. (1990)

0.37

Barney (1991)

0.28

Brown et al. (1994)

0.36

Jensen (1993)

0.48

Baysinger and Hoskisson (1990)

0.37

Wernerfelt (1984)

0.28

Klein (1986)

0.36

Maksimovic and Phillips (2002)

0.47

Amihud and Lev (1981)

0.37

Hoskisson and Turk (1990)

0.26

Desai and Jain (1999)

0.33

Hoskisson et al. (1994)

0.47

Bhagat et al. (1990)

0.37

Markides (1995)

0.25

Markides (1992)

0.33

Johnson (1996)

0.47

Fama and Jensen (1983)

0.36

Bergh (1995)

0.06

Johnson et al. (1993)

0.33

Hitt et al. (1996)

0.47

Lehn and Poulsen (1989)

0.36

Hoskisson et al. (1994)

0.06

Hoskisson (1994)

0.33

Markides (1992)

0.42

Cochran et al. (1985)

Montgomery (1982)

0.35

Shleifer and Vishny (1991)

0.06

Hite and Owers (1983)

Miles and Rosenfeld (1983)

Teece (1982)

Penrose (1959)

0.26

Hoskisson and Johnson (1992)

  1. The articles were selected according to the highest degree of centrality. For the whole list of references, the reader can contact to the corresponding author
  2. aIn both the first and the third stages, 31 and 33 works are chosen, respectively, given that they recorded the same degree of centrality as the thirtieth reference

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Sánchez-Riofrío, A.M., Guerras-Martín, L.Á. & Forcadell, F.J. Business portfolio restructuring: a comprehensive bibliometric review. Scientometrics 102, 1921–1950 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1495-0

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