Connected Firms and Investor Myopia

Conglomerates, multinational corporations and business groups are non-exclusive forms of complex firms. Often organized as corporate networks, complex firms control a myriad of firms connected through ownership links. We investigate whether parent-subsidiary links within corporate networks enhance transparency because the investors in a listed parent company and in its listed subsidiary now receive information about these two firms from each these firms. Alternatively, the corporate network complexity could bring about more opacity when investors are unable to detect the connections between the corporate entities. We examine the share price reactions to information releases by various entities of the corporate network. We find that parent’s investors benefit from enhanced transparency in case the parent announces surprise earnings first, whereas subsidiaries’ investors seem mostly unaware of ownership links and are myopic.