Corporate reputation based theory of choice between organic, hybrid and inorganic growth strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how organizational resources: mass media corporate reputation and relative performance influences firms choice between organic, hybrid and inorganic growth strategies and how industry competition moderates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Using panel data and Tobit regression on sample of firms from emerging markets, i.e. India, the study is conducted. Findings – The results indicate that firm's corporate reputation, its relative performance with respect to competitors, positively influences hybrid growth strategy and negatively influences organic growth strategies. Further, results show that competition acts as a moderator of firm's relative performance and growth choice. Originality/value – The study contribute to resource-based view of the firm and corporate reputation literature by the extending the deterministic role of corporate reputation to not only firms’ market-based performance but also strategic choice.