Alternative Theories of Small-Firm Growth: A Critical Review

P N O'Farrell and D M W N Hitchens
Additional contact information
P N O'Farrell: Department of Town and Country Planning, Heriot-Watt University, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF, Scotland
D M W N Hitchens: Department of Economics, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland

Environment and Planning A, 1988, vol. 20, issue 10, 1365-1383

Abstract: This paper contains a review of alternative theories which have been developed in order to explain growth and change in the small manufacturing firm. Models of small-firm growth derived within the industrial economics literature are evaluated together with stage models of growth and stochastic models. Social and psychological perspectives on growth are reviewed and the spatial dimension is also considered. We argue that most previous theories of small-firm growth place too little emphasis upon the difficulties which small owner-managed firms have in meeting the competitive requirements of the marketplace.

Date: 1988
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a201365 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:20:y:1988:i:10:p:1365-1383

DOI: 10.1068/a201365

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().