Industrial Restructuring and the Future of the Small Firm: The Case of Canadian Microbreweries

S Milne and S Tufts

Environment and Planning A, 1993, vol. 25, issue 6, 847-861

Abstract: The dramatic flourishing of small-scale enterprise in recent years has stimulated a great deal of academic interest. Indeed many researchers have given the small firm pride of place in theories designed to explain the growth of a new, more ‘flexible’, economic environment. Recently, however, commentators have questioned whether these analyses are perhaps not overly optimistic in the role they ascribe to small firms. We add to the debate through a study of small Canadian brewers (microbrewers). Whereas Canada's major brewers have been forced to restructure and rationalise their operations in the face of new competitive pressures, including trade liberalisation and changing consumer demand, microbreweries have found themselves catering to a growing niche market and have expanded rapidly in number. Although much of the microbrewery ‘success story’ appears to support theories of small-firm growth, we argue that a cautionary note must be added for the future. Improved efficiency and flexibility is making it easier for large brewers to break into the high-profit-margin niche markets that were once the preserve of their smaller counterparts. As a result, the next decade may not witness the same levels of small-firm growth that characterised this sector in the 1980s.

Date: 1993
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a250847 (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:25:y:1993:i:6:p:847-861

DOI: 10.1068/a250847

Access Statistics for this article

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