Breaking away from the pack: uncovering the characteristics of exceptional firms in power-law performance distributions

Wales, W., Belitski, M., Martin, J. A. and Stettler, T. (2025) Breaking away from the pack: uncovering the characteristics of exceptional firms in power-law performance distributions. Academy of Management Perspectives. ISSN 1943-4529 doi: 10.5465/amp.2023.0503

Abstract/Summary

This study tracks firm excellence in the wild by exploring the phenomenon of exceptional firm performance, focusing on outliers within a power-law performance distribution. Specifically, we examine organizational, regional, and industry factors contributing to a firm’s exceptional status. Our methodology involves analyzing data on 40,698,121 firm-year observations and 2,696,503 firms in the United Kingdom during 2001–2017 and probing for factors that are associated with firms that achieve exceptional performance. We adopt an abductive reasoning process, guided by previous work on firm acceleration and growth, to explore potential factors influencing such extreme outlier emergence. This flexible approach enables us to delve into predictive characteristics of exceptional firms to help guide policy recommendations. Taken together, what we find expands our understanding of exceptional firm characteristics and sheds light on the organizational contexts where we expect to witness such exceptional performance.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/124004
Identification Number/DOI	10.5465/amp.2023.0503
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Digitalisation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Publisher	Academy of Management
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