Staying on top: characteristics of long-term survival

Reports the results of an empirical study investigating the key factors that affected the survival of large manufacturing organizations between 1982 and 1993 in Australia. Four broad categories of variables were examined: environmental variables, organizational variables, company strategies and ownership characteristics. Using logistic regression analysis, it was found that the following variables were significant for company survival: size, planning system, corporate direction, research and development and ownerships characteristics.