Organic and Acquisitive Growth: Re-examining, Testing and Extending Penrose's Growth Theory
研究了企业过去的有机增长和并购增长如何影响当前的有机增长，基于瑞典企业面板数据发现，过去的有机增长会抑制当前有机增长，而过去的并购增长则促进当前有机增长。
Edith Penrose's theory of firm growth postulates that a firm's current growth rate will be influenced by the adjustment costs of, and changes to a firm's productive opportunity set arising from, previous growth. Although she explicitly considered the effect of previous organic growth on current organic growth, she was largely silent about the effect of previous acquisitive growth. In this paper we extend Penrose's work to examine how previous rates of organic and acquisitive growth influence current organic growth. Employing a panel of Swedish firms over a 10-year period, our results suggest the following. First, previous organic growth acts as a constraint on current organic growth. Second, previous acquisitive growth has a positive effect on current organic growth. We conclude that organic growth and acquisitive growth constitute two distinct strategic options facing the firm, which have a differential impact on the future organic growth of the firm.