Which Factors Affect The Size Of The Firm

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What factors exert limits on the size of firms? Introduction As the jurist Louis Brandeis held a century ago: “Size, we are told, is not a crime (…) but size may, at least, become noxious by reason of the means through which it is attained or the uses to which it is put.” The question of the size of the firm is essential especially in the actual context where the debate “too big too fail” is not close to end. Indeed “too big too fail” relates to those entities (such as banks) that are so crucial for the economy that states cannot let them fail. But on the other hand, as Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England held: "If some banks are thought to be too big to fail, then, in the words of a distinguished American economist, they are too big. It is not sensible to allow large banks to combine high street retail banking with risky investment banking or funding strategies, and then provide an implicit state guarantee against failure." This idea is thus to cut their size: “Too big to fail, too big to exist” According to the classical economics school and more precisely Adam Smith, the invisible hand of the market acted as the main coordinating mechanism of the many activities between small businesses of that time. The analysis is focused on the market and its auto-regulation (the market is perfect, efficient and without cost) and not on organizations. In the 19th century was a period of rapid growth of the United States and United Kingdoms economy. The number of firms increased and it leads to more specialised and geographically dispersed production. There was as a result a need to create managerial hierarchies that would monitor and coordinate these new, faster processes geographically dispersed and temporary distinct activity. The globalization process of the 20th century pushed the growth of the size of economic organizations. This denegation of the

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