An investigation into why Turkish business groups resist the adoption of M-form in post-liberalization

The aim of the present study is to investigate why Turkish business groups resist the adoption of the M-form despite Chandlerʹs well-established premise on the evolution of multi-activity firms toward the M-form in post-liberalization. This paper is based on the economic and institutional theory. An analysis of the findings reveals that the holding companies (H-form) resist the M-form despite the strategy-structure misfit. On the other hand, inward-oriented internalization strategy which is pursued in the liberalization period affects structural choices of the business groups through adaptation of the M-form. Our results also provide support for the institutional account of the M-form adaptation through normative pressure. This paper tends to support the new institutional economics that expects to see such groups in contexts where they provide some type of economic advantage because holdings have maintained their unrelated business portfolios, thereby experiencing significant strategy-structure misfit.