Mapping and Analysis of Exit Strategy Research: A Bibliometrics and Systematic Review

Business exit strategies are fundamental to ensuring a company's long-term viability. Despite their critical role, this area of research has been surprisingly understudied. This knowledge gap can leave companies unprepared to navigate the complexities of exiting a market or business venture. To bridge this critical knowledge gap, our study conducts a systematic literature review, analyzing research findings from the past three decades (1990-2022). By synthesizing key findings, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of current research trends in business exit strategies. This analysis will not only offer valuable insights into existing knowledge but also identify potential gaps and opportunities for future exploration. By understanding the research landscape, we can pave the way for more informed decision-making and successful business exit strategies.
 

We employed a combined approach of systematic literature review and bibliometrics using R programming to analyze trends in business exit research.
 

A co-occurrence network analysis revealed three main thematic clusters in business exit research i.e., performance, asset sales, and survival. These clusters, representing the most frequently co-occurring keywords within the field, exhibit the highest cumulative growth over the past three decades. This highlights their thematic significance in exit strategy research. For instance, "performance" frequently co-occurs with concepts like acquisition, governance, diversification, and decision-making, suggesting its central role in exit decisions. Similarly, a review of co-citations identified management publications as the most interconnected followed by financial management and economics publications. This suggests a disciplinary gap within the research area. Four key research themes emerged from the analysis were exit drivers, exit decisions, exit modes, and consequences. Additionally, several theoretical perspectives emerged, including agency theory, corporate governance, resource-based view, and dynamic capability theory.
 

The research landscape is dominated by studies on exit drivers and exit consequences, often explained through frameworks such as agency theory, transaction cost economics (TCE), resource-based view (RBV), and evolutionary theory. Financial research focuses on the exit's impact on subsidiary performance and parent company financials, while economics explores industry factors influencing exit decisions. Financial researchers primarily investigate the exit's impact on subsidiary performance and the parent company's post-exit financial health. Agency theory is the dominant theoretical framework in this area. Economists examine how micro and macroeconomic factors (industry concentration, growth, size, profitability), economies of scale, capital intensity, and sunk costs influence barriers to entry and exit, ultimately driving business exits. Based on these findings, future research avenues include investigating the role of diversification as a driver of business exits, exploring how corporate governance structures influence both firm performance and exit decisions, analyzing factors contributing to non-optimal timing of business exits, examining the potential for reusing resources in new ventures to facilitate exits and minimize negative consequences, investigating the role of organizational capabilities in early detection of exit signals, and conducting a comprehensive exploration of both internal and external consequences of business exits, along with effective response strategies.