Corporate Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from Fertility Clinics

Ambar La Forgia, Julia Bodner

Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapportKonferenceabstrakt i proceedingsForskningpeer review

Abstract

Corporate investors have fueled the corporate transformation of medicine by acquiring and affiliating with healthcare organizations. This paper studies how corporate ownership impacts firm performance. We collect novel data on US fertility clinics that join corporate-backed fertility networks and use difference-in-differences methods to estimate changes in clinic volume and the success of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). We find that post-transaction, clinic volume (measured by IVF cycles) increases by 25.8%, and IVF success rates (measured by the live birth rate) increase by 2.5 percentage points (6.7% increase). This improvement in IVF success rates is driven by clinics that are directly owned by the corporate parent: acquired clinics increase IVF success rates by 5.1 percentage points (13.6% increase), while affiliated clinics experience no change in IVF success rates. In addition to differences in ownership structure, we provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that resource and knowledge transfer within networks most likely explain increases in clinic performance. In particular, we find that clinics change processes and procedures towards quality enhancement, that larger improvements occur among underperforming clinics, and that clinics expand the IVF market instead of capturing market share from independent clinics. Private equity investment into networks also largely explains increases in clinic volume but not IVF success rates. This paper sheds light on the conditions under which corporate ownership can improve life-changing healthcare outcomes.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TitelProceedings of the Eighty-third Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
RedaktørerSonia Taneja
Antal sider1
UdgivelsesstedBriarcliff Manor, NY
ForlagAcademy of Management
Publikationsdato2023
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023
BegivenhedThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023: Putting the Worker Front and Center - Boston, USA
Varighed: 4 aug. 20238 aug. 2023
Konferencens nummer: 83
https://aom.org/events/annual-meeting/future-annual-meetings/2023-putting-the-worker-front-and-center

Konference

KonferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2023
Nummer83
Land/OmrådeUSA
ByBoston
Periode04/08/202308/08/2023
Internetadresse
NavnAcademy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings
ISSN0065-0668

Citationsformater