Lumps, Bumps and Jumps in the Firm Growth Process

The growth of firms is a central topic in entrepreneurship research and much research has been published on the topic. While there are a number of surveys on the topic of firm growth, these surveys generally focus on the determinants of firm growth where firm growth is generally seen as ‘more of the same’ in the context of a smoothly-expanding continuous variable that represents firm size. Lumps, Bumps and Jumps in the Firm Growth Process seeks to contribute to the literature by taking a different angle to the phenomenon of firm growth – emphasizing the lumpy nature of growth, and focusing specifically on the discontinuities in the growth process. It argues that the most interesting growth events occur during these discontinuous lumps and spikes in the growth process. Lumps, Bumps and Jumps in the Firm Growth Process is multidisciplinary and focuses on various aspects of the growth process. Section 2 focuses on theoretical aspects of lumpy growth. Section 3 focuses on empirical research into the lumpiness of firm growth. Section 4 discusses how empirical research into the characteristics and performance of High-Growth Firms (HGFs) as well as searching for regularities in growth paths, growth autocorrelation patterns, growth spells, and growth spikes. Section 5 discusses some implications of this literature review for empirical analysis and Section 6 concludes.