Before 1960, the discussion on enterprise life cycle was almost rare, and the research on enterprise life cycle was just beginning. At this stage, Mei Sen Haier (1959) proposed for the first time that enterprises can be viewed from the perspective of "life cycle" in biology, and that the development of enterprises also conforms to the growth curve in biology. On this basis, he further pointed out that there will be stagnation and extinction in the process of enterprise development, and pointed out that the reason for these phenomena is the lack of enterprise management, that is, the limitations of an enterprise management may become an obstacle to its development. (1960s to 1970s)
Since the 1960s, scholars have studied the theory of enterprise life cycle more deeply than the previous stage, and systematically studied the characteristics of enterprise life cycle. The main representatives are Gardhner and steinmetz.
J.W.Gardner (1965) pointed out that enterprises, like people and other creatures, also have a life cycle. However, compared with the life cycle in biology, the life cycle of enterprises has its particularity, which is mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, the development of enterprises is unpredictable. It may take 20-30 years or hundreds of years for an enterprise to grow from young to old. Second, there may be a stagnation stage in the process of enterprise development, which is not obvious in the biological life cycle. Third, the demise of enterprises is not inevitable, and enterprises can get a new life through change, thus starting a new life cycle.
Steinmetz l l, 1969) systematically studied the growth process of enterprises, and found that the growth process of enterprises showed an S-shaped curve, which can be generally divided into four stages: direct control, command and management, indirect control and departmental organization. (1970s and 1980s)
In 1970s and 1980s, scholars put forward some growth models based on the study of enterprise life cycle theory, and began to pay attention to the study of enterprise life cycle with models. The main representatives are Churchill, Lewis, greiner and Itzhak Addis.
Churchill N.C and Lewis V.L (1983) described the characteristics of each development stage of an enterprise from two dimensions of enterprise scale and management factors, and put forward a five-stage growth model, that is, the enterprise life cycle includes the establishment stage, the survival stage, the development stage, the take-off stage and the maturity stage. According to this model, the overall development of enterprises generally presents typical characteristics such as "temporarily or permanently maintaining the status quo", "sustained growth", "strategic change" and "sale or bankruptcy".
Greiner (L.E.Greiner, 1985) thinks that enterprises develop alternately through evolution and change, and the history of enterprises can determine the future of enterprises more than external forces. Taking sales revenue and the number of employees as indicators, he combined them into a five-stage growth model according to their different performances in organizational size and age: establishment stage, guidance stage, decentralization stage, coordination stage and cooperation stage. The model highlights the changing process of the decision-making mode and management mechanism of the founders or managers in the process of enterprise growth, and holds that each growth stage of an enterprise is composed of early evolution and later changes or crises, and whether these changes can be carried out smoothly is directly related to the sustainable growth of the enterprise.
Ichak adizes can be said to be one of the most representative figures in the theory of enterprise life cycle. In his book "Enterprise Life Cycle", he divides the growth process of an enterprise into ten stages: gestation period, infancy, toddler period, adolescence, mature period, aristocratic period, initial bureaucratic period, bureaucratic period and death period (see the figure below). He believes that every stage of enterprise growth can be reflected by two indicators: when the enterprise is new or young, it is relatively easy to make changes, but when the enterprise enters the aging period, it has strong control over behavior, but lacks flexibility until it dies.
At this stage, western scholars' research on enterprise life cycle theory is more in-depth and perfect, so this stage is a prosperous stage of enterprise life cycle theory research.
4. Perfection and revision stage of enterprise life cycle theory (from 1990s to the end of 20th century) On the basis of western scholars' research on enterprise life cycle, Chinese scholars revised and perfected it, with Chen Jiagui and Ye Li as the main representatives.
Chen Jiaze (1995) redefined the enterprise life cycle, which he divided into: gestation period, survival period, rapid development period, maturity period, recession period and transition period. This is different from the previous study of enterprise life cycle that ended in recession, but it has joined the transition period after enterprise recession, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of enterprises.
On this basis, Ye Li (2000) put forward a revised enterprise life cycle model, which is different from Chen Jiali's enterprise scale as the variable, sales as the variable and sales as the ordinate. The reason is that sales reflect the value of products and services in the market, and the increase of sales must be supported by the expansion of production and operation scale and the enhancement of competitiveness, which can basically reflect the growth of enterprises. He pointed out that all stages of enterprise life should be defined by different States in the process of enterprise life. Therefore, he divides the enterprise life cycle into incubation period, initial stage, development period, maturity period and decline period.
5. From the extension stage of enterprise life cycle theory (2 1 early century) to 20 13, the research focus of business and theoretical circles began to shift from the original enterprise life cycle research to the enterprise life cycle research, that is, how to maintain and improve the growth of enterprises, so as to extend the life of enterprises.