Industry Life Cycles

Evidence on entry, exit, firm survival, innovation and firm structure in new industries is reviewed to assess whether industries proceed through regular cycles as they age. A leading depiction of the evolution of new industries, the product life cycle, is used to organize the evidence it is shown that the product life cycle captures the way many industries evolve through their formative eras, but regular patterns occur when industries are mature that are not predicted by the product life cycle. Regularities in entry, exit, firm survival and firm structure are also developed for industries whose evolution departs significantly from the product life cycle. Opportunities for further research on the nature of industry life cycles and the factors that condition which life cycle pattern an industry follows are discussed. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.