International big business revisited: On the size and growth of the world's largest firms

This paper explores the association between the growth of sales and the size of the world's largest industrial firms for the period 1967–77. The tests follow the methodology introduced by Rowthorn and Hymer (1971) who, for an earlier period, had remarked that although there was slight evidence amongst smaller firms of a negative relationship between growth and size, at no time, and in no area, were there signs of a positive relationship. Our results are, in general, similar to those of Rowthorn and Hymer. The main difference being the large numbers of firms (mostly American) exhibiting a positive relationship between size and growth for 1972–7.