Overview
What you will study
While the popular press often gives a distorted view by focusing on success stories, The Growth of Firms and Industry Dynamics course offered by Waseda University provides a balanced view of the overall structure and dynamics of the population. A “big picture” view is presented first, showing the huge dispersion that persists within business populations in terms of growth rates, age, productivity, and the firm size distribution. Models of industry dynamics (Gibrat's Law, Gamblers' Ruin Theory) are simple and powerful ways of explaining the emergence of the observed distributions. We then summarize economic studies in the area to uncover the characteristics and determinants of firm growth, to enhance our ability to predict which firms will grow. Various firm-level and industry-level theories have been put forward to explain why some firms grow faster than others, and these theories will be discussed, highlighting their strengths as well as their limitations.
The student will watch videos, read background materials, participate in discussion fora, and take polls and quizzes as they strengthen their understanding and critical analysis of the modern industry landscape.
Programme Structure
The program focuses on:
- Explain the distributions of firm size, firm age, firm-level productivity, and firm growth
- Apply a class of useful models that includes Gibrat's Law and Gambler's Ruin Theory
- Develop an aerial view of the determinants of firm growth that have been reliably identified by researchers
- Conduct a comparison and critical evaluation of various theories of firm growth, that each provide an internally-coherent depiction of certain aspects of firm growth
Key information
Duration
- Part-time
- 1 months
- 2 hrs/week
Start dates & application deadlines
- StartingApplication deadline not specified.
Language
Delivered
Disciplines
Business Administration Strategic ManagementAcademic requirements
We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.
English requirements
We are not aware of any English requirements for this programme.
Other requirements
General requirements
- No particular prerequisites.
- The content may include specialist terminology (e.g. business, mathematics) but this will be explained in the course.
Tuition Fee
-
International
FreeTuition FeeBased on the tuition of 0 JPY for the full programme during 1 months. -
National
FreeTuition FeeBased on the tuition of 0 JPY for the full programme during 1 months.
- Free
- Optional upgrade available