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The Role of Organizational Structure:
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Massimo Massa * Lei Zhang **
* Department of Finance, INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77300 Fontainebleau France, Tel: +33-160724481, Email: massimo.massa@insead.edu ** Division of Banking and Finance, Nanyang Business School, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798 Singapore. Tel: +65-81824202, Email: zhangl@ntu.edu.sg
The Role of Organizational Structure:
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Abstract:
We study how organizational complexity affects managerial behavior, breaking it down into vertical hierarchy and degree of specialization. We exploit a novel dataset on the organizational structure of the US asset management industry. We show that more hierarchical structures reduce the incentive to collect soft information by investing less in closely-located firms. This reduces portfolio concentration and performance and increases herding. In contrast, a higher degree of specializations and variety of competences makes asset managers provide more unique trading strategies and herd less with each other. Changes in fund structure quickly find their way into the behavior of fund managers.
JEL classification: G23, G30, G32 Keywords: organizational structure, hierarchy, specialization, mutual funds, performance, herding, proximity investment.
1
The Role of Organizational Structure:
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Abstract:
We study how organizational complexity affects managerial behavior, breaking it down into vertical hierarchy and degree of specialization. We exploit a novel dataset on the organizational structure of the US asset management industry. We show that more hierarchical structures reduce the incentive to collect soft information by investing less in closely-located firms. This reduces portfolio concentration and performance and increases herding. In contrast, a higher degree of specializations and variety of competences makes asset managers provide more unique
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Massimo Massa * Lei Zhang **
* Department of Finance, INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77300 Fontainebleau France, Tel: +33-160724481, Email: massimo.massa@insead.edu ** Division of Banking and Finance, Nanyang Business School, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798 Singapore. Tel: +65-81824202, Email: zhangl@ntu.edu.sg
The Role of Organizational Structure:
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Abstract:
We study how organizational complexity affects managerial behavior, breaking it down into vertical hierarchy and degree of specialization. We exploit a novel dataset on the organizational structure of the US asset management industry. We show that more hierarchical structures reduce the incentive to collect soft information by investing less in closely-located firms. This reduces portfolio concentration and performance and increases herding. In contrast, a higher degree of specializations and variety of competences makes asset managers provide more unique trading strategies and herd less with each other. Changes in fund structure quickly find their way into the behavior of fund managers.
JEL classification: G23, G30, G32 Keywords: organizational structure, hierarchy, specialization, mutual funds, performance, herding, proximity investment.
1
The Role of Organizational Structure:
Between Hierarchy and Specialization
Abstract:
We study how organizational complexity affects managerial behavior, breaking it down into vertical hierarchy and degree of specialization. We exploit a novel dataset on the organizational structure of the US asset management industry. We show that more hierarchical structures reduce the incentive to collect soft information by investing less in closely-located firms. This reduces portfolio concentration and performance and increases herding. In contrast, a higher degree of specializations and variety of competences makes asset managers provide more unique