De-Diversification in Germany: Some Critical Remarks on Nicolai and Thomas (2006)

In the article “De-Diversification Activities of German Corporations from 1988 to 2002: Perspectives from Agency and Management Fashion Theory”, published in sbr in January 2006, Nicolai and Thomas offer some interesting hypotheses and empirical analyses on the occurrence of de-diversifications in Germany. We question their results on both theoretical and empirical grounds: the applied operationalization is inadequate in the given context, and is likely to produce flawed findings. We elaborate on our concerns and suggest an alternative measurement approach.