Asset restructuring and business group affiliation in French affiliation in French civil law countries

We examine the relationship of environmental antecedents to asset restructuring in nine French civil law countries in Latin America and Europe. In these countries, business group affiliation helps member firms to access resources, take advantage of environmental opportunities, and neutralize threats. Results indicated that environmental antecedents, such as change in country development, increased competition and deregulation led to increased asset restructuring. More importantly, however, we also found that the influence of environmental factors was moderated by business group membership. The relationship between change in country development and restructuring was stronger for group-affiliated firms and the effects of increased competition and deregulation on asset restructuring were stronger for primarily independent firms. Our study offers additional evidence that organizations may respond differently to environmental opportunities and threats depending on the institutional setting. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.