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> The average corporate lifespan in the US is 27 years. I wonder what the average lifespan is for companies that are already more than X years old, where X cou

by corin_ 10y ago

> The average corporate lifespan in the US is 27 years. I wonder what the average lifespan is for companies that are already more than X years old, where X could be 1, 2, 5... I'm thinking as a comparison to how the biggest increase in average lifespan for humans wasn't everyone dying a tiny bit later, it was infant mortality dropping massively.

csours 10y ago
Period life expectancy is the term you are looking for, I think. Immediate googling does not provide a helpful answer. Another interesting question would be Cohort life expectancy of corporations - that is, have corporations started in the 1990's lasted longer than those started in the 2000's? (obviously, the graph of corporations in the 2000's would have less data)
dredmorbius 10y ago
Among the more fascinating results out of evolutionary biology and the Red Queen Hypothesis is that species survival probability is almost wholly independent of species age. That is: survival does not convey a survival benefit. I don't know what the corresponding trend is for business ventures, but I suspect they may exhibit similar traits. I am aware that various measures of corporate dominance are declining -- residency within the Dow Jones 30 Industrials, for example.