Does our ability to predict the performance of new ventures improve in the years after start-up? We investigate the growth and survival of 6247 new ventures that are tracked using the customer records at Barclays Bank. We put forward Gambler's Ruin as a simple theory for understanding new...

The effect of the COVID shock on European economies has been severe and also unequal, with some firms being affected much more strongly than others. To improve the effectiveness of policy interventions, policymakers need to understand which types of vulnerable firms have been suddenly pushed...

Although diversity between team members may bring benefits of new perspectives, nevertheless, what holds a team together is similarity. We theorise that diversity in one dimension is traded off against diversity in another. Our analysis of collaborative research teams that received FP7 funding...

It is well-known in the literature that self-employment positively influences job satisfaction, but the effects on other life domains and overall life satisfaction are much less clear. Our study analyzes the welfare effects of self-employment apart from its monetary aspects, and focuses on the...

Several theories suggest that excessive fast growth may lead to failure. We explore survival across the growth rate distribution for a cohort of 6579 new ventures, tracked over their first 10 years, using customer records data from a major UK bank. We measure failure though termination of the...

Strategies for firm growth vary in terms of their degrees of novelty, uncertainty, and synergy. Modes of firm growth include replication (growth by ‘more of the same’), diversification, and internationalization. Growth strategies can be implemented using organic growth or through...