Liability of Middleness Revisited: The Advantages for Mid-Sized Competitors in Renewable Natural Resource Industries
挑战了中型企业面临最大市场选择压力的传统观点，发现在可再生自然资源产业中，规模与产品线广度对生存的影响呈倒U型，中型企业反而更具优势。基于美国纸浆与造纸行业1970-2000年数据实证支持，对自然资源占重要地位的新兴经济体尤其有参考价值。
ABSTRACT Size is an important antecedent of firm survival, and several studies theoretically sustain and empirically support a ‘liability of middleness’. Indeed, it is widely believed that companies should act strategically to either become large or remain small and occupy a niche position, because mid-sized firms face the strongest market selection pressures. This study challenges that logic in renewable natural resource industries. Measuring size as product-line scale and firm-level portfolio breadth, we argue that in industries characterized by cost competition, the lack of product differentiation, large capital investments, and sharp price oscillation, scale and breadth have a curvilinear effect on survival that favors mid-sized firms rather than penalizing them. An empirical analysis of the US pulp and paper (P&P) industry over the period 1970–2000 strongly supports our arguments. This study is particularly relevant for emerging economies, in which natural resource industries represent an important portion of the total economic activity.