We analyze the words that firms use to describe their products to examine multiple-industry firm operations. Our central finding is that multiple-industry firms operate across industries with higher product language overlap. Multiple-industry firms also avoid industries with more distinct...

We use text-based computational analysis of business descriptions from 10-Ks to examine in which industries conglomerates are most likely to operate and to understand conglomerate valuations. We find that conglomerates are more likely to operate in industry pairs that are closer together in the...

We introduce a new framework for forming peer firm portfolios that can account for firm uniqueness and organizational form. Our new vocabulary-based peer firm portfolios explain much cross sectional dispersion in firm valuations and generate a direct measure of firm product market uniqueness. We...

We develop a novel 10-K text-based model of product life-cycles and examine firm investment policies. Conditioning on the life cycle substantially improves the explanatory power of investment-Q models, and reveals a natural ordering of investments driven by the product life cycle. Firms...