Dynamics of competition and survival

Along time, increasing competitiveness is said to have shortened firms' life spans; however, for those who managed to survive, the question relies on what are the best competitive positions. The question is whether firms can sustain a competitive advantage for longer periods. To answer it, this article analyzes the combined performance (profit and growth) trajectories of 993 firms along two decades, comparing their competitive dynamics with the overall market. We use American COMPUSTAT data (1990-2009), decomposing the individual firm effect in hierarchical modeling and segregating the differe...