Systematization of the theories of corporate growth on the basis of the methodology of paradigms

Abstract

Multiple theories and models that examine different aspects of corporate growth can be systematized on the basis of the methodology of paradigms. For this purpose, the author determines the three dominant paradigms of growth (causal, paradigm of the results of growth, and process paradigm); each of them forms the methodological principles of growth research and original representation on the process of corporate growth. The methodology of causal paradigm is based on orientation towards determining causal relations (laws) responsible for the growth. Paradigm of the results synthesizes the theories and models of growth that study the life cycle of the companies and changes taking place on different stages. The concepts of process paradigm of growth view the company as a complex, self-organizing system, and follow the organizational changes that emerge as a result of growth. The present time marks the establishment of integration paradigm, which describes growth as a process of integrating companies into supra-organizational structures. This article attempts to systematize the theoretical approaches towards understanding the mechanisms and distinctive features of corporate growth based on the general scientific methodology of paradigms. The author believes that the fundamental difference between the proposed typology consists in  the focus on “natural” systematization, which is based not on the highlighted characteristics, analogies, isomorphic manifestations of growth essential for classification, but on homologies, i.e. characteristics based on the theoretical and methodological grounds shared by one or another group of theories, which set the general vector of research and representations on the peculiarities of the object of study — corporate growth. Such general principles of research comprise the core of a particular paradigm that encompasses a group of concepts of corporate growth.