Performance of Employee-Owned Small Companies: A Preliminary Study
研究了创始人退休后转为员工所有制的小公司能否继续竞争，发现这些公司在销售增长和就业增长上优于竞争对手，表明员工所有制企业绩效良好。
PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEE-OWNED SMALL COMPANIES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY When the founder of a small business retires and turns over ownership to the employees, can the company continue to compete? Does the loss of management expertise, or the financial strain of buying out the retiring owner cripple the new employee-owned business? The question of what happens to an employee-owned company after the original owners have left is becoming increasingly important. Almost unknown a decade ago, employee ownership has quickly become one of the most common ways for retiring business owners to liquidate their assets. Of the more than seven thousand American companies with total or substantial employee ownership, it is estimated that more than one-fourth-- perhaps even more than one-third-- were converted to such ownership for this reason. The employee-ownership issue has important practical implications. Over the years, Congress has provided significant tax incentives for retiring owners to sell their businesses to Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs. If many employee-owned companies fail after their founders leave, however, Congress may have reason to reconsider this policy. Banks also are interested in the success of employee ownership, as they often play an important role in lending to ESOPs. If the record should show that employee-owned companies tend to fail, bank financing to buy out retiring owners would dry up very quickly. Of course, small business owners themselves are interested in seeing their companies continue after they leave. Some owners have a direct financial interest in the continued success of the firm because they personally guarantee loans to the ESOPs. But most owners are simply quite proud of their companies and want them to remain independent. Because current owners are the ones who make the decision to convert to employee ownership, it is important that they have accurate information about the prospects for continued success. Finally, employees are concerned about the future of an employee-owned firm. The company is more than an investment to them--it is their livelihood. PREVIOUS RESEARCH The purpose of this preliminary study is to examine the track records of employee-owned companies after their founders retire. Until recently, the research on this subject consisted only of a few case studies of companies which became employee-owned when the founder/owner retired. The studies were quite positive, but they did not systematically attempt to answer the question of what happens after the owner retires. In 1985, therefore, the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) undertook an exploratory study to look at this question more systematically. The results were very positive. On the average, the firms studied out-performed their competitors by 30 percent in sales growth and by three-to-one in employment growth. These results add to a growing body of evidence that employee-owned companies have outstanding performance records. Various studies over the last ten years have indicated that such companies are more profitable,1 more productive,2 stay in business longer,3 have higher sales growth rates,4 and hire more new employees5 than comparable conventional firms. The present study of what happens to a wholly or substantially employee-owned company after the previous principal owner retires should allay any remaining fears among business people, bankers, or employees that selling a small business to an ESOP is a risky venture. 1 Michael Conte and Arnold Tannenbaum, Employee Ownership (Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Survey Center, 1980), p. 3. 2 Thomas Marsh and Dale McAllister, ESOP's Tables,' Journal of Corporation Law (Spring 1981), p. 596. 3 Arnold Tannenbaum. Harold Cook, and Jack Lohmann, Research Report: The Relationship of Employee Ownership to the Technological Adaptiveness and Performance of Companies,' unpublished paper (Ann Arbor. …