Researchers in corporate strategy have long argued that resource “relatedness” contributes to a firm's competitive advantage. One implication is that entries made by a firm into businesses that are closely related to the firm's existing businesses should have higher survival rates than...

An established firm can enter a new product market through acquisition or internal development. Predictions that the choice of market entry mode depends on ‘relatedness’ between the new product and the firm’s existing products have repeatedly failed to gain empirical support. We resolve...