Abstract： Despite a consensus that business expansion drives firm effectiveness, extant literature has neglected the exact relationship between business expansion and firm efficiency. Using secondary data from the US and Chinese banking industries, this study explores two efficiencies of exploratory expansion (i.e., investing in new business,outside the scope of the firm’s existing business) and exploitative expansion (i.e.,expanding target markets in the existing business)—profitability and marketability. The empirical results reveal that exploratory expansion decreases profitability but increases marketability. Meanwhile, exploitative expansion has no significant effect on profitability,but it can increase marketability. Furthermore, the study reveals that Chinese banks are likely to benefit more from exploratory expansion, whereas US banks would benefit from exploitative expansion.

　　*原文刊于Asia Pacific Journal of Management 2015年第32卷第2期，551-569页。Asia Pacific Journal of Management为SSCI源期刊，当前的影响因子为2.742，被学院认定为B+级。王峰为黄敏学教授的博士生，寿志钢教授系本文的通讯作者