Resources of the firm, Russian high-technology startups, and firm growth

Russia possessed many world-class technologies prior to the break up of the Soviet Union. Entrepreneurial endeavors resulted from this technological ability as market forces encouraged individuals to leave the large state enterprises that produced those technologies. Founding characteristics of the firm impact the resources that are available to the startup firm. This study investigates the extent to which founding factors in Russia help high-technology firms to prosper. It was found that the team establishing the business mitigated the liability of newness. However, in contrast to the US, the culture of Russia does not produce negative results if the founding team grows very large. Additionally, it was shown that firms that pursued more technological products and enter the market later performed best.     

Small firm internationalization through experiential learning: The moderating role of socialization tactics

The importance of experiential knowledge for small firm internationalization has been emphasized in the process model of internationalization, the international new venture or born-global frameworks and the management characteristics perspective in the exporting literature. However, none examines in detail under what conditions experiential learning is more important for internationalization. We borrow insights from the socialization tactics literature to theorize how the context, content and social aspects of a foreign sojourn offer different opportunities for the acquisition of experiential knowledge to support the internationalization of small firms. We suggest that socialization tactics moderate the relationship between individual international experiential knowledge and small firm internationalization. We propose that the opportunities for international experiential learning are superior when the socialization context is individual and formal (rather than collective and non-formal), the socialization content is sequential and fixed (rather than random and variable) and when socialization involves serial and investiture (rather than disjunctive and divestiture) social aspects.     

Growth beyond Gibrat: firm growth processes and strategies

Firm growth studies have been focused on the question of whether firm growth is independent of firm size. This shadow of Gibrat’s Law has drawn attention to the randomness in firm growth. However, it has also clouded relevant research avenues that enquire into the role of firm growth processes and strategies. This paper takes stock of the current state of the art of firm growth studies in small business economics, and makes a plea for more specific research approaches that highlight the nature of the firm, organization, and growth paths. This rejuvenation of firm growth studies comprises a search for necessary mechanisms and contingent conditions for the growth of firms.     

Market delimitation,firm survival and growth in service industries

This article focuses on the effect of both firm survival and market delimitation on stochastic growth behaviour in the realm of service industries. Two samples of firms were selected for the study, one of them representing the surviving firm population in the tourism industry and the other one representing the firm total. The activity of firms was used for measuring the influence of market delimitation. Stochastic growth behaviour is found to hold for the sector as a whole, whereas it does not do so for the population of surviving firms. Market delimitation is also observed to influence growth behaviour, but only when combined with firm survival.     

New firm growth and bank financing

This paper examines the extent to which Lucas' ideas on human capital and Jovanovic' theorising on learning can provide further insights into the development of small firms. It focuses exclusively upon newly established independent firms. Our evidence from two surveys is that bank lending to new firms is unrelated to many of the personal characteristics of founders which have been argued by other researchers to relate to small firm performance. Instead lending appears to be more related to whether or not the founder can or chooses to use personal savings, and the legal status of the business.     

Process innovations and firm productivity growth

This article analyses the effect of process innovations on firm total factor productivity growth, explicitly considering the impact of firm size on the nature of this relationship. In particular, we analyse whether firm size affects the life span of the impact of process innovations on productivity growth. The data are drawn from a Spanish survey of manufacturing firms over the period 1991–1998. We use a fully non-parametric methodology based on the concept of stochastic dominance. Our results show that the implementation of process innovations produces an extra productivity growth both for large and small firms. However, this productivity growth is more persistent for large than for small firms.     

Processes of firm growth and diversification: theory and evidence

Investigating the role of diversification in the firm growth process, we build on Penrose’s (The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1959) Theory of the Growth of the Firm to formulate hypotheses about growth of employment, assets and sales in the years before, during and after a new product introduction. We exploit a new database from the German machine tool industry that boasts a detailed and meaningful definition of diversification. Our exploratory analyses indicate that diversification, in terms of product introductions, is preceded by employment growth. Moreover, we find support that diversification is positively associated with subsequent asset growth, but negatively associated with subsequent employment growth.     

Exports,firm size,and firm dynamics

This paper explores the relationships between exports, firm size, and firm dynamics. It is based on a unique longitudinal data set collected at the establishment level, covering some 7000 manufacturing German firms. We present stylized facts on exports and firm size, showing that the probability that a firm is an exporter increases with firm size; however, there are many successful exporters among small firms, and non-exporters among larger firms, too, while most of the exports are from the top size groups of firms. An econometric study shows a picture that is consistent with theoretical considerations: The impact of firm size on exports is positive but decreasing, while human capital intensity, domestic market share, and advanced technology all have a positive influence on the export performance of a firm. Firm growth and export performance are positively related, as is expected from a model of a price-discriminating monopolist.     

Innovation,firm size,and firm age

This paper uses a new data set on innovation output to assess the degree to which the level of innovation in manufacturing firms is influenced by firm size and firm age. Indicators of innovation output used are the number of new products introduced as a function of firm sales and the proportion of firm sales obtained from products first introduced in the previous five years. While the evidence is mixed, the results tend to indicate that it is possible to separate the effects of age and size in assessing the level of innovation. Both firm size and firm age tend to be inversely related to innovative output.     

Age and firm growth: evidence from three European countries

This article provides new insights into the dependence of firm growth on age along the entire distribution of growth rates, and conditional on survival. Using data from the European firms in a global economy survey, and adopting a quantile regression approach, we uncover evidence for a sample of French, Italian and Spanish manufacturing firms with more than ten employees in the period from 2001 to 2008. We find that: (1) young firms grow faster than old firms, especially in the highest growth quantiles; (2) young firms face the same probability of declining as their older counterparts; (3) results are robust to the inclusion of other firms’ characteristics such as labor productivity, capital intensity and the financial structure; (4) high growth is associated with younger chief executive officers and other attributes that capture the attitude of the firm toward growth and change. The effect of age on firm growth is rather similar across countries.     

New firm formation and employment growth: regional and business dynamics

This study examines differences in the effects of start-up rates on subsequent employment change. Two sources of such differences—types of start-ups and types of regions—are analyzed. We find that differences between knowledge-based and other start-ups dominate differences between highly agglomerated and modestly agglomerated regions. In particular, differences in the effects of new start-ups on subsequent employment growth between highly agglomerated and modestly agglomerated regions are greater for knowledge-based start-ups than for other types of start-ups. The results suggest that, while knowledge-based start-ups are likely to impart greater benefits on future employment than other types of start-ups, these benefits are greater when those start-ups locate in more agglomerated regions.     

Spillovers from foreign direct investment and firm growth: technological,financial and market structure effects

This article examines spillover effects from inward investment on domestic firm growth in the case of a developed host country. The emphasis is placed on the role of the technological gap between domestic and foreign firms in identifying the importance of technology diffusion from the presence of multinationals. An augmented production function is employed to account for technological, financial and market structure effects. Based on a sample of 2589 manufacturing firms operating in Greece between 1992 and 1997, the analysis provides evidence that the significance of spillovers varies with the relative technological position of domestic firms and is higher in the middle and upper quantiles of the growth distribution. It was estimated that a unit increase in the foreign presence in Greek industry raises output growth by 7% on average, in a five‐year period, after controlling for technological differences among firms. This result is consistent with the ‘absorptive capacity’ hypothesis that the technological capability of the host country relates positively to FDI spillover benefits.     

Succession and firm growth: results from a non-parametric matching approach

The article analyses the relationship between succession and firm performance. Applying a non-parametric matching approach on a panel of roughly 4,000 Austrian family firms we evaluate the impact of actual (past) succession as well as planned (future) successions on employment growth. Analysing succession plans, we do not find a significant difference in employment growth between firms that plan to transfer the firm in the next 10 years and those who do not. In contrast, past succession exerts a significant and positive employment growth effect, which becomes stronger over time.

Opinion leaders and followers: A replication and extension

Opinion leadership has been a central construct in studies of new product diffusion models. Flynn, Goldsmith, and Eastman (1996) introduced the related concept of opinion seeking and documented its measurement properties. This replication and extension paper examines these two concepts, using their original scales and placing them in a nomological model that includes innovativeness and computer and software use as antecedents. The research model is tested empirically using a convenience sample of 123 Israeli consumers, with regression models and a multiple discriminant analysis. Innovativeness and computer usage were found to explain opinion leadership and opinion seeking. Opinion leadership and opinion seeking predicted several computer‐related outcomes. The findings can be used to identify and utilize the differing information search profiles for opinion leaders and seekers. The former use a variety of sources, such as store visits and category‐specific newspapers and magazines. In contrast, seekers rely more on expert advice from opinion leaders. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Acquisitions and firm growth: Creating Unilever's ice cream and tea business

The role of acquisitions has been widely discussed in management literature. There is considerable evidence that many acquisitions fail, often because of post-acquisition problems. More recently business historians have examined their role in the restructuring of the British, American and other economies after World War Two. Yet the historical and management literatures have been poorly integrated. This article seeks to address some of the issues raised in the management literature by contributing a longitudinal case study of the use of acquisitions by Unilever to build the world's largest ice cream and tea businesses. The study supports recent resource-based theory which argues that complementary rather than related acquisitions add value. It identifies the importance of local knowledge as a key complementary asset. It also identifies reasons why Unilever was able to integrate acquisitions quite successfully, including clear strategic intent and the fact that employee resistance was reduced because most acquisitions were agreed. Finally Unilever could take a long-term view because of its size, and relative unconcern for shareholder interests before the 1980s.     

Sources of variation in firm profitability and growth

This article reports an analysis of the sources of variation in profitability and growth for manufacturing firms located in eleven European countries. A variance decomposition analysis determines the importance of the country, industry, corporate group and firm effects on profitability and growth. The analysis reveals evidence of differences between industries in the comparative advantage offered by different countries, reflecting a tendency for specialization and geographic concentration. However, as in several previous studies, the firm-level effects are the most important class of effect in explaining the variation in performance.     

The relationship between firm growth and labor demand

Gibrat's Law is tested on a sample of Italian firms. The results are similar to those recently obtained on various sets of U.S. data and confirm that departures from Gibrat's Law are modest, also when firms' age is accounted for.     

Exports,investment and production growth: A dynamic heterogeneous firm model with learning and entry costs

We analyze a firm’s joint decision to export and invest using a model that incorporates the essential features of self-selection and learning-by-exporting theories of firm-level dynamics. We calibrate the model to 2002–2007 Chilean manufacturing plant data and simulate it under different assumptions, finding that neither self-selection nor learning-by-exporting alone can adequately explain the observed cross-sectional relationship between firm level exports and capital, favoring instead a model that allows both mechanisms to work in tandem.     

The artisans' dilemma: Artisan entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth

An increasing number of entrepreneurial ventures are growing at exponential rates despite their founders' professed intentions not to grow their firms. We refer to these individuals as artisan entrepreneurs. Through an inductive, phenomenon-based research approach, we explore how artisan entrepreneurs subscribe to a counter-institutional identity yet engage in a divergent set of behaviors. We discover that artisans' counter-institutional identity contains two sides—promoting the exclusion of ‘who we are not’ (oppositional identity) or providing support for ‘who we are’ (relational identity). We theorize that artisan entrepreneurs' differing views regarding their independence led to very different approaches to growth. When artisans either do not see forms of external control as impinging on their independence or sense that serving stakeholders is a means to perform relational identity work, they embrace growth. Thus, artisans may find that growth serves stakeholders, but funding growth brings about financial pressures, which may force the artisan down a path of growth.