Scale, scope and survival : a comparison of labour-managed and capitalist modes of production

Abstract

This paper draws on a comprehensive data set from Portugal to address three central themes in the labour-managed fi rm (LMF) literature: the types of activity undertaken by LMFs, their scale of operation and their survival prospects. The data allow individual rms to be tracked over a 25 year period and for comparisons to be made with capitalist fi rms. We find fi rst, that the industrial distribution of LMFs is markedly different to that of capitalist rms and to the standard characterisation of the pattern of LMF activity. Second, LMFs are, on average, more than twice the size of their capitalist counterparts and third, the survival prospects of LMFs considerably exceed those of capitalist fi rms.