Long-term firm growth: An empirical analysis of US manufacturers 1959-2015
| Autor: | Marco Grazzi, Gary P. Pisano, Federico Tamagni, Giovanni Dosi, Daniele Moschella |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Economics and Econometrics
L25 L63 L21 Settore SECS-P/02 - POLITICA ECONOMICA Monetary economics Persistence Firm heterogeneity Phenomenon 0502 economics and business Economics ddc:330 Production (economics) Dynamism Long-term firm growth 050207 economics Empirical evidence Firm growth Abandonment (legal) 05 social sciences Theory of the firm L11 Circumstantial evidence Industrial Dynamics Industrial dynamics C81 Strategic management D24 L62 050203 business & management D21 D22 |
| Zdroj: | Industrial and Corporate Change |
| Popis: | Firm growth is an essential feature of market economies, shaping together macroeconomic performance and the evolution of industry structures. As a potential indicator of organizational “fitness” within a competitive environment, firm growth is also a central concern to both the practice and theory of business strategy. Despite both its theoretical and practical importance, though, growth remains a poorly understood property of firms. While previous studies have documented the fat-tailed nature of firm growth rates, we know far less about the patterns of growth rates over long periods of time. For instance, do “fast growers” tend to maintain their relative growth rates advantages over long periods or is superior growth a transitory phenomenon? Is, as predicted by evolutionary and capability-based theories of the firm, the process of firm growth path-dependent or is it more akin to a random walk? The answers to these questions are central to building a robust theory of firm growth. This article attempts to address this gap in our empirical knowledge of firm growth using a dataset that spans 50 years, which allows the abandonment of the assumption, common to all incumbent studies, that the stochastic paths of all firms stem from the same generating process. These exploratory results indicate that growth rate persistence is there and may be even substantial for some firms, but it is rare. We also study the links between the micro-properties of firm growth within sectors and the patterns of aggregate growth of these same sectors. Indeed, we find circumstantial but widespread evidence that heterogeneity across firms correlates with industry dynamism. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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