More than Just a Number? The Conceptualization and Measurement of Firm Age in an Era of Temporary Organizations

Abstract

Despite the long history of research on firm age, recent theorizing on firm age has been rare. Meanwhile, significant shifts in the business landscape have altered how firms age and limited the age they are likely to reach. This article seeks to reinvigorate research on firm age by providing the first comprehensive review of the construct while considering how recent studies on time and organizing may be pertinent. We identify important work, integrate what we know, and identify gaps and inconsistencies along five themes in the literature: age-dependence in organizational mortality rates; age-related differences in firm processes or structures; research enriching the theoretical understanding of firm age; research that includes firm age as a control variable; and methodological issues in the study of firm age. We provide evidence that certain long-held assumptions about age have changed as organizations have become increasingly temporary and discuss what this means for organizational research going forward. While we believe the implications we discuss hold value for a broad spectrum of research, we derive more specific recommendations for two streams of research in particular, research on entrepreneurial success and failure, which is directly tied to the liability of newness, and the literature on temporary organizations.

Keywords: firm age, liability of newness, liability of adolescence, liability of ageing, organizational mortality, temporary organizations, organizational change, organizational age, age, entrepreneurship

JEL Classification: M1, M13