Confronting Theories of Firm Growth in Light of Degrees-of-Freedom Analysis

This article aims to confront four theories of firm growth – Optimum Firm Size, Stage Theory of Growth, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm and Dynamic Capabilities – with empirical data derived from a backward-looking longitudinal qualitative case of the growth trajectory of a Brazilian capital goods firm. To do so, we employed Degree of Freedom-Analysis for data analysis. This technique aims to test the empirical strengths of competing theories using statistical tests, in particular Chi-square test. Our results suggest that none of the four theories fully explained the growth of the firm we chose as empirical case. Nevertheless, Dynamic Capabilities was regarded as providing a more satisfactory explanatory power.

本文旨在以某巴西资本品企业成长轨迹的回溯性纵向质性案例所获得的实证数据，对四类企业成长理论进行对照检验：最优企业规模理论（Optimum Firm Size）、成长阶段理论（Stage Theory of Growth）、企业成长理论（The Theory of the Growth of the Firm）以及动态能力理论（Dynamic Capabilities）。为此，本文采用自由度分析（Degree of Freedom-Analysis）方法开展数据分析。该方法借助统计检验（尤以卡方检验（Chi-square test）为代表），评估各竞争性理论的实证解释强度。研究结果表明，本次研究所选取的实证案例企业的成长轨迹，并未被上述四类理论中的任意一种完全阐释。不过，动态能力理论被认为具备相对更优的解释效力。