ABSTRACT
Corporate parents have critical effects they account for 12 percent, 4 percent, or 5-15 percent of the aggregate variance in profitability, depending on which study we trust. Corporate management is critical for providing goals, directions, guidelines, structures, and control systems to business unit managers that facilitate the performance of their assigned tasks and responsibilities. Goold et al. have developed a typology of four ways a corporate parent can influence its business units: stand-alone influence, through which the corporate parent enhances the individual performance of the business units; linkage influence, through which the corporate parent enhances the value of the linkages between the business units; functional and services influence, through which the parent provides functional leadership and cost effective services for the business units; corporate development activities, which alter the scope of the business portfolio.
