IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v60y2018i2p157-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The drivers of firm longevity: Age, size, profitability and survivorship of Australian corporations, 1901–1930

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Panza
  • Simon Ville
  • David Merrett

Abstract

Why do some firms last longer than others? This question has attracted considerable interest among scholars from business history, management and economics. Our article combines the business historian’s macro view of the relationship between size, longevity, and economic development with quantitative modelling. We apply survival analysis to data relating to size, age and profitability, three first-order explanations of longevity, for Australian stock exchange (ASX) listed corporations from 1901 to 1930. The novelty of the article is twofold: we find that firm size is a poor predictor of longevity for the full sample but its age and profitability are highly significant; our data covers a longer time frame and relates to a rich mid-sized and non-industrialised country.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Panza & Simon Ville & David Merrett, 2018. "The drivers of firm longevity: Age, size, profitability and survivorship of Australian corporations, 1901–1930," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(2), pages 157-177, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:60:y:2018:i:2:p:157-177
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2017.1293041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2017.1293041
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2017.1293041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ville,Simon & Withers,Glenn (ed.), 2015. "The Cambridge Economic History of Australia," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107029491.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shabir Ahmad & Rosmini Omar & Farzana Quoquab, 2019. "Corporate Sustainable Longevity: Scale Development and Validation," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.
    2. Dadang Irawan & Harjanto Prabowo & Engkos Achmad Kuncoro & Nurianna Thoha, 2022. "Operational Resilience as a Key Determinant of Corporate Sustainable Longevity in the Indonesian Jamu Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Monica Keneley, 2020. "Reflections on the Business History Tradition: Where has it Come from and Where is it Going to?," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 282-300, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Greasley, David & McLaughlin, Eoin & Hanley, Nick & Oxley, Les, 2017. "Australia: a land of missed opportunities?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 674-698, December.
    2. Grant Fleming & Zhangxin (Frank) Liu & David Merrett & Simon Ville, 2021. "Underpricing in a developing capital market: Australian equity issuances, 1920–39†," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(3), pages 831-855, August.
    3. Monica Keneley, 2020. "Reflections on the Business History Tradition: Where has it Come from and Where is it Going to?," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 282-300, November.
    4. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2021. "Always egalitarian? Australian earnings inequality 1870–1910," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 228-246, July.
    5. Richard Pomfret & Patricia Sourdin, 2016. "Trade between Australia and the EU, 1990 - 2015," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2016-10, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    6. Thomas Mathews, 2019. "A History of Australian Equities," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2019-04, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    7. Pierre Van Der Eng, 2017. "Dealing With Liability Of Foreignness: The Case Of Philips In Australia, 1945-1980," CEH Discussion Papers 06, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    8. Grant Fleming & Frank Liu & David Merrett & Simon Ville, 2022. "Patents, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Australia, 1860-2010," CEH Discussion Papers 08, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    9. David Greasley & Jakob B. Madsen, 2017. "The Rise and Fall of Exceptional Australian Incomes Since 1800," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(3), pages 264-290, November.
    10. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2017. "Australian Squatters, Convicts, and Capitalists: Dividing Up a Fast-Growing Frontier Pie 1821-1871," NBER Working Papers 23416, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Lara Domínguez & Colin Luoma, 2020. "Decolonising Conservation Policy: How Colonial Land and Conservation Ideologies Persist and Perpetuate Indigenous Injustices at the Expense of the Environment," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-22, February.
    12. Peter Gibson, 2020. "The Market Gardens of Dark Dragon Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, 1876–1930," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 372-393, November.
    13. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2017. "Australian Exceptionalism? Inequality and Living Standards 1821-1871," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 2027, The University of Melbourne.
    14. Grant Fleming & Frank Liu & David Merrett & Simon Ville, 2022. "Australian Innovative Activity and Offshore Technology 1904 – 2016," CEH Discussion Papers 09, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Robert Crawford, 2020. "A Matter of Trust: The Ashby Research Service and the Business of Market Research," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 346-371, November.
    16. Boyd Hunter, 2016. "Conversations with an Eminent Labour Economist: Keith Jackson Hancock," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 19(1), pages 3-14.
    17. Andrew Leigh, 2021. "Putting the Australian Economy on the Scales," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(1), pages 19-35, March.
    18. Grant Fleming & Frank Liu & David Merrett & Simon Ville, 2021. "The Australian corporate bond market before credit ratings, 1915-83," CEH Discussion Papers 03, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:60:y:2018:i:2:p:157-177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.