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Broadening Focus

NBER Working Paper No. 16937
Issued in April 2011

The long-standing argument that focused operations out-perform others stands in stark contrast to claims about the benefits of broader operational scope and is addressed by Jonathan R. Clark, Robert Huckman in this working paper

Specialize Expertise

The performance benefits of focus are typically attributed to reduced complexity, lower uncertainty, and the development of specialized expertise, while the benefits of greater breadth are linked to the economies of scope achieved by sharing common resources, such as advertising or production capacity, across activities. Within the literature on corporate strategy, this tension between focus and breadth is reconciled by the concept of related diversification (i.e., a firm with multiple operating units, each specializing in distinct but related activities). They consider whether there are similar benefits to related diversification within an operating unit and examine the mechanism that generates these benefits.

Cardio-Vascular Care Context

Using the empirical context of cardiovascular care within hospitals, the authors first examine the relationship between a hospital’s level of specialization in cardiovascular care and the quality of its clinical performance on cardiovascular patients. They find that, on average, focus has a positive effect on quality performance. They then distinguish between positive spillovers and complementarities to examine: (1) the extent to which a hospital’s specialization in areas related to cardiovascular care directly impacts performance on cardiovascular patients (positive spillovers) and (2) whether the marginal benefit of a hospital’s focus in cardiovascular care depends on the degree to which the hospital “co-specializes” in related areas (complementarities).

Assessment

In this setting, they find evidence of such complementarities in hospital specialization.

Link: https://hq.ssrn.com/login/pubSignInJoin.cfm?nber_id=w16937

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Filed under: Career Development, iMBA, Inc., Practice Management | Tagged: Hospital Industry, hospital logistics, hospital operations, hospital specialization, hospital workflow, Jonathan R. Clark, NBER, niche hospitals, Robert Huckman, specialized hospitals | Leave a comment »