IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifmwps/0117.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Business takeovers and firm growth: Empirical evidence from a German panel

Author

Listed:
  • Habermann, Harald

Abstract

The present article links business takeovers to the literature on serial autocorrelation of growth rates. The aim of the study is to identify the effects of successions on the performance of small German firms by analysing the growth pathways over a period of eight years after business takeover. Using panel data from 1,872 firms, the present article shows that for the first two years after a business takeover, small firms are subject to negative serial correlation of growth rates regarding employment. The analysis underlines the importance of longitudinal data to provide evidence on changes in the behaviour of a firm following a business takeover.

Suggested Citation

  • Habermann, Harald, 2017. "Business takeovers and firm growth: Empirical evidence from a German panel," Working Papers 01/17, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifmwps:0117
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/157534/1/884893642.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2007. "Performance and Behavior of Family Firms: Evidence from the French Stock Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(4), pages 709-751, June.
    2. Werner Bönte & Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich, 2009. "The Impact of Regional Age Structure on Entrepreneurship," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(3), pages 269-287, July.
    3. Alex Coad, 2009. "The Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13424.
    4. Elizabeth Garnsey & Erik Stam & Paul Heffernan, 2006. "New Firm Growth: Exploring Processes and Paths," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20.
    5. Villalonga, Belen & Amit, Raphael, 2006. "How do family ownership, control and management affect firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 385-417, May.
    6. Michael Anyadike-Danes & Carl-Magnus Bjuggren & Sandra Gottschalk & Werner Hölzl & Dan Johansson & Mika Maliranta & Anja Myrann, 2015. "An international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 821-844, April.
    7. Evans, David S, 1987. "The Relationship between Firm Growth, Size, and Age: Estimates for 100 Manufacturing Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 567-581, June.
    8. Paul A. Geroski & Stephen J. Machin & Christopher F. Walters, 1997. "Corporate Growth and Profitability," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 171-189, June.
    9. Paul Geroski & Klaus Gugler, 2004. "Corporate growth convergence in Europe," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 597-620, October.
    10. Evans, David S, 1987. "Tests of Alternative Theories of Firm Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 657-674, August.
    11. Bahadir, S. Cem & Bharadwaj, Sundar & Parzen, Michael, 2009. "A meta-analysis of the determinants of organic sales growth," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 263-275.
    12. Coad, Alex & Frankish, Julian S. & Roberts, Richard G. & Storey, David J, 2015. "Are firm growth paths random? A reply to “Firm growth and the illusion of randomness”," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 5-8.
    13. Chesher, Andrew, 1979. "Testing the Law of Proportionate Effect," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 403-411, June.
    14. Goddard, John & Wilson, John & Blandon, Peter, 2002. "Panel tests of Gibrat's Law for Japanese manufacturing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 415-433, March.
    15. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Gerard A. Pfann, 1996. "Adjustment Costs in Factor Demand," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 1264-1292, September.
    16. Boeri, Tito & Cramer, Ulrich, 1992. "Employment growth, incumbents and entrants : Evidence from Germany," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 545-565, December.
    17. McConaughy, Daniel L. & Walker, Michael C. & Henderson, Glenn Jr. & Mishra, Chandra S., 1998. "Founding family controlled firms: Efficiency and value," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-19.
    18. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.
    19. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Daniel Halvarsson, 2015. "Are high-growth firms one-hit wonders? Evidence from Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 361-383, February.
    20. Iza Lejárraga & Harald Oberhofer, 2015. "Performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises in services trade: evidence from French firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 673-702, October.
    21. Liu, Jin-Tan & Tsou, Meng-Wen & Hammitt, James K., 1999. "Do small plants grow faster? Evidence from the Taiwan electronics industry," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 121-129, October.
    22. Erik Stam, 2010. "Growth beyond Gibrat: firm growth processes and strategies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 129-135, September.
    23. Variyam, Jayachandran N. & Kraybill, David S., 1992. "Empirical evidence on determinants of firm growth," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 31-36, January.
    24. Giulio Bottazzi & Angelo Secchi, 2003. "Common Properties and Sectoral Specificities in the Dynamics of U.S. Manufacturing Companies," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 23(3_4), pages 217-232, December.
    25. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2009. "On the Autocorrelation of Growth Rates," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 139-166, June.
    26. Alex Coad, 2007. "A Closer Look at Serial Growth Rate Correlation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, August.
    27. Smith, Brian F. & Amoako-Adu, Ben, 1999. "Management succession and financial performance of family controlled firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 341-368, December.
    28. Morck, Randall K. (ed.), 2000. "Concentrated Corporate Ownership," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226536781, August.
    29. repec:bla:jindec:v:46:y:1998:i:4:p:453-88 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Werner Hölzl, 2014. "Persistence, survival, and growth: a closer look at 20 years of fast-growing firms in Austria," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 199-231, February.
    31. Morten Bennedsen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen & Francisco Perez-Gonzalez & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2007. "Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 647-691.
    32. repec:bla:jindec:v:45:y:1997:i:2:p:171-89 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    34. Russell W. Cooper & John C. Haltiwanger, 2006. "On the Nature of Capital Adjustment Costs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(3), pages 611-633.
    35. Dietmar Harhoff & Konrad Stahl & Michaerl Woywode, 1998. "Legal Form, Growth and Exit of West German Firms—Empirical Results for Manufacturing, Construction, Trade and Service Industries," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 453-488, December.
    36. Gottschalk, Sandra & Höwer, Daniel & Licht, Georg & Niefert, Michaela & Hauer, Annegret & Keese, Detlef & Woywode, Michael, 2010. "Generationenwechsel im Mittelstand: Herausforderungen und Erfolgsfaktoren aus der Perspektive der Nachfolger," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 110544.
    37. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-535, June.
    38. Michael L. Tushman & Lori Rosenkopf, 1996. "Executive Succession, Strategic Reorientation and Performance Growth: A Longitudinal Study in the U.S. Cement Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(7), pages 939-953, July.
    39. Derbyshire, James & Garnsey, Elizabeth, 2014. "Firm growth and the illusion of randomness," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 1, pages 8-11.
    40. Paul Geroski & Mariana Mazzucato, 2002. "Learning and the sources of corporate growth," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 623-644, August.
    41. Müller, Klaus & Kay, Rosemarie & Felden, Birgit & Moog, Petra & Lehmann, Stephanie & Suprinovic, Olga & Meyer, Susanne & Mirabella, Désirée & Boerger, Sven & Welge, Britta & Coritnaia Irina, 2011. "Der Generationswechsel im Mittelstand im demografischen Wandel," Göttinger Handwerkswirtschaftliche Studien, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh), volume 83, number 83.
    42. Giulio Bottazzi & Elena Cefis & Giovanni Dosi, 2002. "Corporate growth and industrial structures: some evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(4), pages 705-723, August.
    43. Randall K. Morck, 2000. "Concentrated Corporate Ownership," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number morc00-1.
    44. Derbyshire, James & Garnsey, Elizabeth, 2015. "Are firm growth paths random? A further response regarding Gambler's Ruin Theory," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 9-11.
    45. Denise Diwisch & Peter Voithofer & Christoph Weiss, 2009. "Succession and firm growth: results from a non-parametric matching approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 45-56, January.
    46. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    47. P. A. Geroski, 2005. "Understanding the implications of empirical work on corporate growth rates," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 129-138.
    48. Moog, Petra & Kay, Rosemarie & Schlömer-Laufen, Nadine & Schlepphorst, Susanne, 2012. "Unternehmensnachfolgen in Deutschland: Aktuelle Trends," IfM-Materialien 216, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    49. Coad, Alex & Frankish, Julian & Roberts, Richard G. & Storey, David J., 2013. "Growth paths and survival chances: An application of Gambler's Ruin theory," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 615-632.
    50. Rick L. Williams, 2000. "A Note on Robust Variance Estimation for Cluster-Correlated Data," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 645-646, June.
    51. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1301-1327 is not listed on IDEAS
    52. Marco CUCCULELLI & Giacinto MICUCCI, 2006. "Entrepreneurship, Inherited Control and Firm Performance in Italian SMEs," Working Papers 258, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    53. Takehiko Yasuda, 2005. "Firm Growth, Size, Age and Behavior in Japanese Manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 1-15, December.
    54. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and the Sustainability of Competitive Advantage: Reply," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1514-1514, December.
    55. Jay B. Barney & Edward J. Zajac, 1994. "Competitive Organizational Behavior: Toward an Organizationally‐Based Theory of Competitive Advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 5-9, December.
    56. Stefanie Lambertz & Reinhard Schulte, 2013. "Consolidation period in new ventures: how long does it take to establish a start-up?," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 369-390.
    57. Robert E. Hall, 2004. "Measuring Factor Adjustment Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 899-927.
    58. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    59. Dean Shepherd & Johan Wiklund, 2009. "Are we Comparing Apples with Apples or Apples with Oranges? Appropriateness of Knowledge Accumulation across Growth Studies," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(1), pages 105-123, January.
    60. G. Bottazzi & E. Cefis & G. Dosi & A. Secchi, 2007. "Invariances and Diversities in the Patterns of Industrial Evolution: Some Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Industries," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 137-159, June.
    61. Georgios Fotopoulos & Ioannis Giotopoulos, 2010. "Gibrat’s law and persistence of growth in Greek manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 191-202, September.
    62. Angela Triguero & David Córcoles & Maria Cuerva, 2014. "Persistence of innovation and firm’s growth: evidence from a panel of SME and large Spanish manufacturing firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 787-804, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Daria Ciriaci & Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Peter Voigt, 2016. "Innovation and job creation: a sustainable relation?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(2), pages 189-213, August.
    2. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2012. "Firm Growth: Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Alex Coad, 2007. "Firm Growth: a Survey," Post-Print halshs-00155762, HAL.
    4. Canarella, Giorgio & Miller, Stephen M., 2018. "The determinants of growth in the U.S. information and communication technology (ICT) industry: A firm-level analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 259-271.
    5. Giulio Bottazzi & Taewon Kang & Federico Tamagni, 2023. "Persistence in firm growth: inference from conditional quantile transition matrices," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 745-770, August.
    6. Alex Coad & Werner Hölzl, 2009. "On the Autocorrelation of Growth Rates," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 139-166, June.
    7. Alex Coad & Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Daniel Halvarsson, 2018. "Bursting into life: firm growth and growth persistence by age," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 55-75, January.
    8. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Daniel Halvarsson, 2015. "Are high-growth firms one-hit wonders? Evidence from Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 361-383, February.
    9. Michael Anyadike-Danes & Mark Hart, 2018. "All grown up? The fate after 15 years of a quarter of a million UK firms born in 1998," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 45-76, January.
    10. Alex Coad & Stjepan Srhoj, 2020. "Catching Gazelles with a Lasso: Big data techniques for the prediction of high-growth firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 541-565, October.
    11. Daria Ciriaci & Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Peter Voigt, 2012. "Does size or age of innovative firms affect their growth persistence? -Evidence from a panel of innovative Spanish firms-," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2012-03, Joint Research Centre.
    12. Alex Coad & Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Daniel Halvarsson, 2022. "Amundsen versus Scott: are growth paths related to firm performance?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 593-610, August.
    13. Alex Coad, 2022. "Lumps, Bumps and Jumps in the Firm Growth Process," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 18(4), pages 212-267, April.
    14. Denise Diwisch & Peter Voithofer & Christoph Weiss, 2009. "Succession and firm growth: results from a non-parametric matching approach," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 45-56, January.
    15. Alex Coad, 2007. "A Closer Look at Serial Growth Rate Correlation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, August.
    16. Bartoloni, Eleonora & Baussola, Maurizio & Bagnato, Luca, 2020. "Waiting for Godot? Success or failure of firms’ growth in a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 259-275.
    17. Alex Coad, 2006. "Understanding the processes of firm Growth - a closer look at serial growth rate correlation," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques r06051, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    18. Alexander Coad & Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, 2008. "The Growth and Decline of Small firms In Developing Countries," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2008-08, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    19. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.
    20. Erik Stam, 2010. "Growth beyond Gibrat: firm growth processes and strategies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 129-135, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business takeovers; successions; autocorrelation; panel data; small firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:ifmwps:0117. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifmbode.html .

    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.