近日，中国人民大学国家发展与战略研究院反垄断与竞争政策研究中心主任叶光亮教授出席第75届国际管理学年会（Academy of Management）期间，获得颁发的2015年Emerald卓越引文奖（Emerald Citations of Excellence Award）。叶光亮教授的文章“Achieving demand-side synergy from strategic diversification: How combining mundane assets can leverage consumer utilities”作为《Organization Science》期刊本年度入围的文章最终获此奖项。文章首次提出消费者协同效应理论，并分别从理论上和实证上证明其存在的机理，对组织边界理论和竞争优势理论做出贡献。该奖项基于论文发表之后三年的论文引用等综合影响力指标，今年的获奖文章是从2012年度在300多本优秀经管类国际期刊中超过15000篇的文章中评选而出。

论文链接：http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.1100.0627

论文摘要：

We explore the overlooked issue of how certain strategic-level, interindustry diversification options might increase consumer utility. Discussions of inter-industry diversification typically focus on producer synergies obtainable from economies of scope or from skill transfer across business units. Discussions of intra-industry product diversification—generally, the province of marketing—typically focus on synergies obtainable from product bundling, which lowers producer costs or provides convenience for consumers. We take a different tack by linking interindustry diversification and consumer utility. We first separately examine two possible consumer benefits of interindustry diversification: (1) facilitating consumers` accomplishment of two tasks simultaneously or (2) attracting diverse consumer groups to a common platform when intergroup externalities exist. We then assess a simple empirical context that shows potential for simultaneous consumer utilities and two-sided market utility together. We analyze this context and concurrently develop a mathematical model showing how these demand-side synergies can create unique business value. We next introduce asymmetric preferences among consumer subgroups, and we refine our arguments by comparing their conclusions with the empirical data. We learn that combinations of otherwise mundane (i.e., commonplace) assets can create consumer value—“superior” assets are not necessary. Moreover, common ownership is necessary for the pricing flexibility required to deliver (and capture) maximum value through interindustry diversification, especially when consumer groups` preferences may change; the negotiations and settling up required for cooperation through alliances will, without common ownership, increase costs and reduce responsiveness. We discuss the sustainability of demand-side advantages and the implications of these ideas for future research and practice.