Staying Young at Heart or Wisdom of Age: Longitudinal Analysis of Age and Performance in US and Japanese Firms

How does ageing influence the profitability of firms? This study uses an analysis of corporations listed on the NYSE and TSE between 1978 and 2015 to highlight clear differences between US and Japanese firms with respect to the relationship between age and profitability. It shows that US firms lose efficiency, as measured by total asset turnover as they age, whereas Japanese firms’ ability to generate profit from sales declines. This study explores the factors underlying these national differences in the relationship between ageing and profitability, focusing on rigidity of resource allocation. By examining the technological distance, we calculate resource allocation rigidity of the firms. The results show at all ages, Japanese firms are more rigid than their US counterparts, although the slope is steeper in the case of US firms. These observations suggest that Japanese firms’ operating profit margins decline as they age because they are less likely to change how they allocate resources and tend to stay in their existing business sectors, even if they are underperforming. In other words, these findings suggest that being flexible about allocation of resources mitigates the negative effect of ageing on profitability. The results suggest that changing patterns of resource allocation retards learning in the business domains in which a firm is already active.