Holding Companies: Size-Related Cost Economies
Alvin SilkHarvard Business School and Ernst BerndtMIT Sloan School of Management
How big is big enough for a holding company? The advertising and marketing services business is not of one mind on this issue, as can be seen from the ongoing debate about the relative merits of holding companies and traditional full-service agencies with respect to performing the fundamental functions of delivering creative and integrated communications efficiently in an era of globalisation while satisfying client requirements concerning serving competing accounts (1).
Holding companies achieved double. digit growth rates during the 1990s...