CORPORATE BENEFICIARIES OF THE MID-CENTURY WARS - RESPECIFYING MODELSOF CORPORATE-GROWTH, 1939-1959

Objective. Accounts of corporate growth have emphasized strategies and organizational structures as explanatory variables. This has been the case even during those periods when the United States was involved in major wars. The authors argue that one important factor during these times, defense procurement, should be considered as a causal variable. Methods. This research builds on Neil Fligstein's analyses of growth over the 1939-59 period by adding measures of defense. Results. The ev idence suggests that, even when controlling traditional organizational factors, defense spending had a large effect on those firms participa ting in the war effort. Furthermore, it is found that the mechanism re sponsible for that growth was a variety of incentives, provided by the government, for firms to expand. Conclusions. Organizational growth i s a temporal process, and thus analyses of it must be historically spe cific. The magnitude of output required during World War II and the Ko rean War, the federal government's reliance on private firms to supply wartime necessities, and investment incentives were all important fac tors contributing to growth during this time.