1. This paper examines the impact of related diversification across service offerings and industry domains for professional service firms (PSFs) in emerging economies.
2. The results show that related diversification across specializations and industry domains impact performance differently across different firm sizes.
3. Reputation transfer across industry domains play a significant role in the performance of small size firms whereas the ability to realize economies of scope by cross selling multiple services across clients do matter for performance of medium sized firms.
The article is overall reliable, as it provides evidence from unique data from the Indian Information Technology industry to support its claims. The authors also provide insights into how related diversification impacts small and medium sized firms differently, which adds to the credibility of their findings. However, there are some potential biases that should be noted when considering this article. For example, the authors focus solely on PSFs in emerging economies, which may limit the generalizability of their findings to other contexts or industries. Additionally, while they discuss how reputation transfer plays a role in small firm performance, they do not explore how reputation transfer could potentially have an adverse effect on performance if it is negative or tarnished in any way. Furthermore, while they discuss how economies of scope can benefit medium-sized firms, they do not explore any potential risks associated with such strategies or how these strategies could potentially backfire if not implemented correctly. In conclusion, while this article is overall reliable and provides valuable insights into related diversification in PSFs, there are some potential biases that should be taken into consideration when evaluating its trustworthiness and reliability.