[5] Leff[6] defines "business group" as a group of companies that does business in different markets under common administrative or financial control whose members are linked by relations of interpersonal trust on the basis of similar personal ethnic or commercial background.
One method of defining a group is as a cluster of legally distinct firms with a managerial relationship.
A unique feature of pyramidal holdings is that it allows the main investor to exert control with a limited amount of capital.
Encarnation[11] refers to Indian business houses, emphasizing multiple forms of ties among group members.
Powell and Smith-Doerr[12] state that a business group is a network of firms that regularly collaborate over a long time period.
Williamson[13] claims that business groups lie between markets and hierarchies; this is further worked out by Douma & Schreuder.
[14] Khanna and Rivkin[15] suggest that business groups are typically not legal constructs though some regulatory bodies have attempted to codify a definition.