Long-Term Viability of Midsize Engineering Firms

Abstract

AbstractThe consulting engineering industry focusing on the built environment is characterized by a large number of small firms distributed across the United States. With over 55,000 firms and over 800,000 employees, the industry accounts for over $116 billion in revenue based on the last official census. However, this overall perspective provides little insight into the complexity of the individual sectors, trends, and long-term outlook that characterizes this diverse industry. Of particular interest in this study is the long-term success and viability of the midsize engineering firm. This study addresses the question of midsize firm viability from a new perspective, an analysis of 35 years of data to study the trends that are affecting the industry as a whole and the midsize firms specifically. In this analysis, it is found that the mega firms have increased their percentage of Top 500 income from 10% in 1986 to 41% in 2011. To facilitate this increase, the mega firms have gained revenue percentage from...