Corporate diversification’s effects on Efficiency and productivity: case study of Manufacturing firms listed in Bursa Malaysia

Abstract In the past few years, diversification has turned into a highly controversial issue amongst numerous managers in almost each and every business. It is contended by many that diversification is vitally important and highly effective especially when it comes to evaluating the financial performance. There are several studies about the relationship between diversification and financial performance. However, there is no agreement that diversified firms are more efficient than focus firms. In this paper, the manufacturing firms listed in Bursa Malaysia are ranked based on their efficiency scores calculating by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models and the effect of diversification on the efficiency scores of these corporations have been investigated. Moreover, by slack analysis, the proposed improvement strategies for inefficient firms have been cited. Ultimately, the Malmquist index of productivity (MIP) has been utilized to further comparison and analysis.