Business growth models: review of past 60 years

This study reviews growth configurations research published over the past 60 years. Numerous configuration models seek to clarify the management priorities in the early growth of companies. However, an extensive review is missing from the literature and the variability of attributes among the models leads to confusion. The study identifies 90 configuration studies, describes the common patterns and trends, and identifies well-covered areas and promising research challenges. This meta-analysis reveals increasing consensus on growth indicators, sharpening focus, increasing context and process specificity, and diversification. Future approaches are encouraged to provide context-specific empirical studies, and to open new viewpoints.

[1]  Sam Fullerton,et al.  Stage of the organizational life cycle and competition as mediators of problem perception for , 1994 .

[2]  R. C. Davis.  The fundamentals of top management , 1952 .

[3]  M. Scott,et al.  Five stages of growth in small business , 1987 .

[4]  I. Jawahar,et al.  Toward a Descriptive Stakeholder Theory: an Organizational Life Cycle Approach , 2001 .

[5]  Johan Wiklund,et al.  Conceptual and Empirical Challenges in the Study of Firm Growth , 2006 .

[6]  P. Olson.  Entrepreneurship and Management , 1987 .

[7]  Robert B. Buchele.  Business policy in growing firms : a manual for evaluation , 1967 .

[8]  Roger Hudson,et al.  Designing New Business Startups: Entrepreneurial, Organizational, and Ecological Considerations , 1984 .

[9]  R. Kahn,et al.  The Social Psychology of Organizations , 1966 .

[10]  P. Swiercz,et al.  Entrepreneurial leadership in high‐tech firms: a field study , 2002 .

[11]  Fabrice Pirnay,et al.  A stage model of academic spin-off creation , 2002 .

[12]  Richard M. Hodgetts,et al.  Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Approach , 1994 .

[13]  Patrizia Garengo,et al.  Organizational capability in SMEs: Performance measurement as a key system in supporting company development , 2007 .

[14]  Edward Sallis,et al.  The Structure of Organisations , 1990 .

[15]  W. Starbuck.  The Efficiency of British and American Retail Employees , 1966 .

[16]  A. Cooper.  Strategic management: New ventures and small business , 1981 .

[17]  C. V. Kroeger.  Managerial Development in the Small Firm , 1974 .

[18]  Mary Ann Eastlick,et al.  Examination of US Hispanic-owned, small retail and service businesses: an organizational life cycle approach , 2000 .

[19]  Fontainebleau,et al.  Stages of small business growth revisited Insights into growth path and leadership/management skills in low- and high-growth companies , 1994 .

[20]  Robert K. Kazanjian,et al.  An empirical test of a stage of growth progression model , 1989 .

[21]  Arthur H. Kuriloff,et al.  Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management , 1979 .

[22]  S. Zadek.  The path to corporate responsibility. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[23]  N. Churchill,et al.  The Five Stages of Small Business Growth , 1983 .

[24]  Samuel A. Culbert,et al.  Stages of Organization and Development , 1978 .

[25]  Robert K. Kazanjian,et al.  A stage-contingent model of design and growth for technology based new ventures , 1990 .

[26]  Larry Lockshin,et al.  Organizational Life Cycles in Small New Zealand Wineries , 2001 .

[27]  Eric Flamholtz,et al.  Managing organizational transitions: Implications for corporate and human resource management , 1995 .

[28]  M. J. K. Stanworth,et al.  GROWTH AND THE SMALL FIRM — AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW , 1976 .

[29]  P. Herbst.  Measurement of Behaviour Structures by Means of Input-Output Data , 1957 .

[30]  W. Torbert.  Pre-bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic stages of organization development , 1974 .

[31]  Warren H. Schmidt,et al.  Crises in a developing organization. , 1967 .

[32]  Terence R. Mitchell,et al.  Top Level Management Priorities in Different Stages of the Organizational Life Cycle , 1985 .

[33]  Jay Gaibraith,et al.  The Stages of Growth , 1982 .

[34]  J. Cannon,et al.  Business strategy and policy , 1968 .

[35]  W. Whyte.  HUMAN RELATIONS in the Restaurant Industry , 1949 .

[36]  Gaylen N. Chandler,et al.  Tightening the Life-Cycle Construct: A Taxonomic Study of Growth Stage Configurations in High-Technology Organizations , 1994 .

[37]  Patrick R. McMullen,et al.  Human Resource Management Problems Over the Life Cycle of Small to Medium-sized Firms , 2003 .

[38]  J. Kimberly,et al.  Issues in the creation of organizations: initiation, innovation, and institutionalization. , 1979, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[39]  Gaylen N. Chandler,et al.  Patterns of Functional Specialization in Emerging High Tech Firms , 1994 .

[40]  P. Nystrom,et al.  Measuring Organizational Growth: Issues, Consequences and Guidelines , 1998 .

[41]  N. Carter.  General and Industrial Management , 1986 .

[42]  Robert K. Kazanjian.  Relation of Dominant Problems to Stages of Growth in Technology-Based New Ventures , 1988 .

[43]  E. Stam.  Why Butterflies Don’t Leave: Locational Behavior of Entrepreneurial Firms , 2007 .

[44]  Lloyd Baird,et al.  Managing Two Fits of Strategic Human Resource Management , 1988 .

[45]  Joseph E. McCann,et al.  Patterns of growth, competitive technology, and financial strategies in young ventures , 1991 .

[46]  P. Davidsson,et al.  Research on small-firm growth : A review , 2005 .

[47]  Ichak Adizes,et al.  Organizational passages—Diagnosing and treating lifecycle problems of organizations , 1979 .

[48]  Julie M. Hite,et al.  The evolution of firm networks: from emergence to early growth of the firm , 2001 .

[49]  Eric Rhenman,et al.  Organization theory for long-range planning , 1973 .

[50]  G. Glass.  Primary, Secondary, and Meta-Analysis of Research1 , 1976 .

[51]  Eric Flamholtz,et al.  Growing pains : how to make the transition from an entrepreneurship to a professionally managed firm , 1986 .

[52]  W. Bennis,et al.  The Social Psychology of Organizations , 1966 .

[53]  Matti A. Kaulio.  Initial Conditions or Process of Development? Critical Incidents in the Early Stages of New Ventures , 2003 .

[54]  Ichak Adizes,et al.  Corporate Lifecycles: How and Why Corporations Grow and Die and What to Do About It , 1989 .

[55]  M. Binks,et al.  A problem‐based phenomenological growth model for small manufacturing firms , 1999 .

[56]  Henry Mintzberg.  Strategy-Making in Three Modes , 1973 .

[57]  Henry Mintzberg.  Power and Organization Life Cycles , 1984 .

[58]  David E. Terpstra,et al.  Entrepreneurial Start-up and Growth: A Classification of Problems , 1993 .

[59]  Mitsuyuki Masatsugu.  How to run a successful business , 1969 .

[60]  H. Schmid,et al.  The Life Cycle of Human Service Organizations , 2008 .

[61]  R. Mitra,et al.  Analysis of Growth Stages in Small Firms: A Case Study of Automobile Ancillaries in India , 1999 .

[62]  W. Abernathy.  PRODUCTION PROCESS STRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE , 1976 .

[63]  Elizabeth Garnsey,et al.  A Theory of the Early Growth of the Firm , 1998 .

[64]  K. Cameron,et al.  Organizational Life Cycles and Shifting Criteria of Effectiveness: Some Preliminary Evidence , 1983 .

[65]  Pier A. Abetti.  Accelerated growth: helping companies get and stay on the fast track , 2001, Int. J. Manuf. Technol. Manag..

[66]  P. H. Friesen,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of the Corporate Life Cycle , 1984 .

[67]  R. Normann,et al.  Management for growth , 1977 .

[68]  Lawrence L. Steinmetz,et al.  Critical stages of small business growth: When they occur and how to survive them , 1969 .

[69]  R. J. House,et al.  Organizations: A Quantum View , 1984 .