CORPORATE LIFE CYCLE DETERMINATION IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Abstract

Corporate life cycle theory is an important part of economic literature and is widely discussed since the 1960’. Despite the importance and attention that is being paid to this theory (or perhaps because of that), there is no uniform procedure for identifying a life cycle stage and at the same time clearly defined criteria are missing. As a result, there is a variety of models and approaches leading to an inconsistent number of phases and a certain degree of "freedom" when a particular phase is being determined. For managers and researchers it is difficult to interpret their results, which can lead to incorrect conclusions and, in the worst case, the erroneous strategic decisions. The aim of this article is, on the basis of selected quantitative indicators (static, dynamic and proportional), to identify corporate life cycle stages of manufacturing companies in the Czech Republic. The proposed procedure should further serve for a large sample size evaluation.