Joint analysis of multiple categorical dependent variables in organizational research

A model for analyzing multiple categorical dependent variables is presented and developed for use in organizational research. A primary example occurs in the foreign market entry literature, in which choice of ownership (majority, equal, or minority) and function (acquisition or joint venture) are simultaneously endogenous; only separate univariate ownership-based and function-based choice models are considered in the literature. Another example is in the comparison of gender and race across organizational units, controlling for confounders such as experience and qualification. Subsuming univariate categorical dependent variables as a special case, the model unifies existing organizational research methods, mitigates bias associated with univariate methods, provides more powerful testing methods, and provides a flexible modeling framework that allows hypotheses to be modeled and tested that are not possible with univariate models. Standard software may be used for estimation and testing; examples are given.