Cross-disciplinary Seminar Series in

Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Myles Shaver
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

THE BENEFITS OF GEOGRAPHIC SALES DIVERSIFICATION: EXPORTING AND CAPITAL
INVESTMENT  (complete paper)

Abstract:
By exporting, firms sell in markets where the business cycles are not perfectly correlated. This geographic sales diversification should provide exporters with cash-flow diversification and stability. Cash-flow stability and the information signal of firm quality from commencing exporting can mitigate investment liquidity constraints. I test these arguments by examining a stratified representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1990 and 1998. I find that exporters’ cash flows and capital investments are more stable than non-exporters’. Moreover, I find evidence that investment liquidity constraints are less binding for exporters compared to non-exporters and investment liquidity constraints change upon the switch of exporting status.

Bio:
Professor Myles Shaver is a professor of strategic management and organization at the Carlson School. His research focuses on mergers and acquisitions, the management and economics of international expansion, and managing the multi-business firm. In addition to examining decision biases in strategic investments, Shaver is currently studying diseconomies of managing in acquisitions, inter-organization partnerships, and the diversification benefits of exporting. Recently, Professor Shaver has published articles on contagion and capacity effects in mergers and acquisitions, firm innovation, and the effect of international research and development on the patent output of Japanese pharmaceutical firms.

Shaver is a department editor for the Journal of International Business Studies and serves on the editorial boards of the Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization, and Journal of International Business Education. Along with MBA courses on corporate strategy, he teaches doctoral seminars on strategy research and has received a number of Carlson School awards, including the outstanding teaching award for MBA electives.

Dr. Shaver received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta and his PhD in international business from the University of Michigan.