Waiting for Godot? Success or failure of firms’ growth in a panel of Italian manufacturing firms

Firms’ ability to compete in the global market crucially depends on their ability to innovate and to introduce new products or processes into the market. This typically requires more complex and structured business organization and ultimately the ability to grow. We use a representative panel of Italian manufacturing firms to investigate whether their pattern of growth entails such an ability. Although the estimates suggest that small firms grow faster than larger ones, we do not observe a significant change in the average size of companies at the end of the period under investigation. The greater propensity to grow shown by smaller firms is confined to the size class in which they are established. However, export intensity plays a significant role in affecting the size growth rate together with industry characteristics related to technological levels.