Strategic Decoupling in Korean Business Groups: Ambiguous Identity as a Strategy in Chaebol Groups

I examine how firms affiliated with Korean business groups utilize decoupling of the stated business area and actual business activities to maintain the economic sustainability of their organizations. In examining the strategic sources of decoupling, I focus on the idiosyncratic nature of Korean business groups, otherwise known as chaebols. I suggest that decoupling of the stated and actual business areas of a chaebol affiliate is affected positively by the number of regulations in the industry, positively by the relative resource endowment of the affiliate within the chaebol, and negatively by the affiliate's niche overlap with other affiliates. However, the negative effect of niche overlap was moderated by the affiliate's relative resource endowment.