Abstract

Today, corporations have a strong role in the economy of developing countries. Therefore, in recent decades, company-level strategy and portfolio management have been important research axes in the field of strategic management. Therefore, portfolio analysis was studied as a key issue at the level of parent companies in this study. In this regard, the purpose of the research is to study how to analyze the portfolio and finally provide a contingency model for analyzing the business portfolio in different corporations. The method is qualitative and the research strategy is classic grounded theory. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 experts and directors of 13 Iranian corporations. The results indicate that the corporate portfolio analysis is based on two general classes: tool orientation and approach orientation. Tool orientation is based on prescriptive logic and typically uses classical analysis matrices, parent advantage models, and quantitative and financial models. Approach orientation is based on descriptive logic and influenced by intuition in managers and political pressures. Analysts and managers are two groups involved in the process of portfolio analysis. Accordingly, the contingency model of portfolio analysis was presented. Finally, in the contingency model, portfolio analysis strategies of all four types corporate-related, diversified, unrelated, and integrated- were explained separately.