Amundsen versus Scott: Are growth paths related to firm performance?

In the race to the South Pole, Roald Amundsen's expedition covered an equal distance each day, irrespective of weather conditions, while Scott's pace was erratic. Amundsen won the race and returned without loss of life, while Scott and his men died. We investigate how firms' sales gro...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Coad, Alex, Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov, Halvarsson, Daniel
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: Stockholm: Institute of Retail Economics (HFI) 2020
Subjects:
D22
L25
L26
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10419/246770
Description
Summary:In the race to the South Pole, Roald Amundsen's expedition covered an equal distance each day, irrespective of weather conditions, while Scott's pace was erratic. Amundsen won the race and returned without loss of life, while Scott and his men died. We investigate how firms' sales growth deviate from the long-run average growth path. Our baseline results suggest that growth path volatility is associated with higher growth of sales and profits, but is also associated with higher exit rates. This is driven by firms with negative growth rates. For positive-growth firms, volatility is negatively associated with both sales growth and survival.