IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v24y2015i6p1443-1472..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Downsizing and firm performance: evidence from German firm data

Author

Listed:
  • Tim Goesaert
  • Matthias Heinz
  • Stijn Vanormelingen

Abstract

This article uses a unique data set to study the short-term effects of downsizing on operational and financial performance of large German firms. In general, productivity and profitability after downsizing are—at the best—comparable to their pre-downsizing levels. During the downsizing event, the performance even drops. Moreover, we make a distinction between firms downsizing because of a business downturn and firms downsizing to increase efficiency. Especially downsizing for the latter firms appears to be unsuccessful.

Suggested Citation

  • Tim Goesaert & Matthias Heinz & Stijn Vanormelingen, 2015. "Downsizing and firm performance: evidence from German firm data," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(6), pages 1443-1472.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:1443-1472.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtv007
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Fabio Pieri & Diego Rodriguez, 2021. "Coping with high decline: firms’ resilience to adversity," DEM Working Papers 2021/08, Department of Economics and Management.
    2. Kao, Chun-Lin & Chen, Ming-Yuan, 2020. "Employee downsizing, financial constraints, and production efficiency of firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 59-73.
    3. Andrea Bassanini & Eve Caroli & Kevin Geay & Antoine Reberioux, 2024. "Heavy is the crown: CEOs’ social interactions and layoff decisions," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 33(5), pages 1253-1270.
    4. D Reshma & Sudharani R & Suresh N, 2022. "A Study on Impact of Downsizing on Profitability of Construction Industries listed in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) India," Papers 2207.11546, arXiv.org.
    5. P. Michael KOSICEK & Ramesh SONI & David YERGER, 2023. "The Distribution of Relative Demand and Relative Supply Shocks for Managers Across the U.S. Economy," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 5-13.
    6. Matthias Fahn & Nicolas Klein, 2019. "Relational Contracts with Private Information on the Future Value of the Relationship: The Upside of Implicit Downsizing Costs," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 33-58, November.
    7. Shahram Ali Kazho & Tarik Atan, 2022. "Public Sector Downsizing and Public Sector Performance: Findings from a Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, March.
    8. Fahn, Matthias & Klein, Nicolas, 2018. "Relational Contracts with Private Information On the Future Value of the Relationship," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 106, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    9. Boumediene Ramdani & Cherif Guermat & Kamel Mellahi, 2021. "The effect of downsizing on innovation outputs: The role of resource slack and constraints," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 46(2), pages 346-365, May.
    10. Newman - Wadesango & Gwangwadza D.C. & Charity Mhaka & Ongayi Wadesango, 2018. "Labour Force Reduction’s Influence on Financial Performance of Manufacturing Companies: A Case Study of Playtime Manufacturers (2011 – 2016)," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 14(5), pages 48-72, OCTOBER.
    11. Zorn, Michelle L. & Norman, Patricia M. & Butler, Frank C. & Bhussar, Manjot S., 2017. "Cure or curse: Does downsizing increase the likelihood of bankruptcy?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 24-33.
    12. Wadesango N & Gwangwadza D C & Mhaka C & Wadesango V O, 2018. "The Impact of Labour Force Reduction on the Financial Performance of Manufacturing Companies," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(2), pages 20-32.

    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:oup:indcch:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:1443-1472.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    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.