MAY PARENTS INHERIT FROM HEIRS? TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PARENT-SPUN-OFF RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

Spin-offs create financially and administratively stand-alone units that hold a strong affiliation with the parent firm due to the concurrence of the ownership structure. So far, few studies have adopted a process perspective to investigate on the value creation of spin off transactions. We argue that spin-off generation does not constitute firm failures, as parents have clear channels to appropriate values of network structure from their spun-off units. We use a network perspective on inter-firm collaboration to observe parent-spun-off unit relationship and develop research propositions to shed new light on the mechanisms that drive the post spin-off events.