Amid increasing interest in firm age and its effects on firm performance, this special issue offers an exhaustive review of the literature and a novel collection of evidence on the effects of firm age on performance, including a special focus of interest on innovation performance, financial performance, exports, survival and growth. This editorial positions the theme in the extant literature, and provides key definitions and challenges ahead in the field of evolutionary economics. It introduces the collection of articles composing the special issue. The papers offer a diversity of country contexts, as well as analytical approaches and methods. They include an exhaustive review of the literature on age and firms' performance, and present original empirical studies focusing on the effects of age on firms' economic outcomes on the one hand, and on innovation outcomes on the other hand. While most of the papers use econometric analysis, the level of analysis ranges from firm to individual.

Firm age and performance

Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and the performance of small firms in Nigeria to determine the effect of environmental hostility towards this relationship. Research Design & Methods: A survey was conducted on small firms. The gathered data were analysed with Andrew Hayes’ Simultaneous Entry on SPSS 23.0 and PROCESS 3. Findings: We discovered that there is no significant relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and firm performance, while environmental hostility moderates this relationship positively. We concluded that a hostile environment motivates firms to adopt Entrepreneurial Orientation, and ultimately improve their performance. Implications & Recommendations: Environmental hostility is a crucial element in determining how Entrepreneurial Orientation relates to small firm performance. Therefore, owners/managers must identify and strengthen these factors that will enable them to improve on their Entrepreneurial Orientation to survive hostile business environments. Contribution & Value Added: Concerning the Resource-Based Theory (RBT) and contingency theories, this study advances the field of Entrepreneurial Orientation by showing how the two combine to explain the Entrepreneurial Orientation–performance relationship in a developing economy. Article type: research article

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Entrepreneurial orientation and small firm performance: The moderating role of environmental hostility

In this paper, we introduce the themes addressed and the approaches used in the Special Issue “Firm Size and Sustainable Innovation Management” to investigate the relationships between firm size and sustainable innovation management. Specifically, by offering multiple perspectives of analysis, this work increases our comprehension and understanding of the role of firm size for sustainable innovation strategies.

/pdf/firm-size-and-sustainable-innovation-management-4uoookjnaf.pdf

Firm size and sustainable innovation management

This study attempts to predict how long a newly listed corporation, usually termed initial public offering (IPO), will survive on the equity listing market. The three-fold contribution of this study comprises a hand-collected and substantially expanded dataset for listed IPOs (1990–2017) over a maximum tracking period of 31 years (1990–2020) to predict the IPO survival on emerging Malaysian capital market, the rationale and consequences for unifying the two listing boards (Main Board and Second Board) in 2009, and an investigation of the predictive role of ex ante strategic prospectus information as early warning signals for sustainable survival of Malaysian IPOs. We also make comparisons for the survival profile of IPOs listed on different listing equity boards. We use Cox proportional hazard (PH) model to estimate the empirical results because of the cohort research design of the study. Overall empirical results show that survival curves for IPOs listed on Main Board and Second Board were not statistically different. However, Second Board IPOs remained more vulnerable to hazard. The survival curves for IPOs listed on Main Market and ACE Market are statistically different. Empirical results reveal that high share premium, high listed capital, and longer firm age at listing date significantly increase the survival (reduce hazard) of IPOs listed on the Main Market and the Second Board. However, bigger firm size and elevated risk factors significantly reduce the survival (increase hazard) of the listed IPOs mentioned above. However, share premium is the only variable that has a negative and significant correlation with IPO survival on ACE Market. These results have implications for the regulators, prospective investors, and policymakers of emerging markets, where the IPO prospectus disclosures bridge the information asymmetry gap prevailing due to the nonexistence of public information prior to the IPO. Empirical findings of this study can be generalized to other developing and emerging markets where IPO prospectus substantially mitigates information asymmetry and ex ante strategic firm characteristics act as early warning signals in predicting IPO survival.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8063/pdf

Predictive Role of Ex Ante Strategic Firm Characteristics for Sustainable Initial Public Offering (IPO) Survival

Sustainable Performance of Large African Firms in Global Value Chains

A James Gaskin Excel Macro Analysis is performed to determine the reliability of our scales, and a 3-way parallel mediation using the Andrew Hayes’ PROCESS model is applied to test the formulated hypotheses. Results show that hedging has a direct effect on firms’ survival; firms’ size and age individually do not strongly influence these effects, but a combination of the two does. We, therefore, concluded that while the hedging-survival effect exists on all forms of hedging, the practice of hedging is consequential for firms on the premise of their ages and numbers of employees.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/887/pdf

Benedict Imhanrenialena

Papers

Firm Size and Age mediating the Firm Survival-Hedging Effect: Hayes’ 3-Way Parallel Approach