Turning 30 and myopic? Temporal orientation and the firm lifecycle

Abstract

A vast body of literature shows that large, publicly listed firms suffer from managerial short‐termism and inadequate temporal orientation. We study the temporal orientations, measured as the investment horizons, of firms throughout their lifecycles. We build on theoretical arguments from organizational learning theory and agency theory to argue that the relationship between firm age and the investment horizon is quadratic, with an inverted U shape. Using a large sample of publicly listed and privately held European firms, we obtain results consistent with this prediction. Our results support the idea that younger firms gradually learn to use more sophisticated investment decision criteria, thus resulting in longer investment horizons. However, this effect is bounded by changes in governance structure, such as the separation of ownership from control that results from the transition from an owner‐managed status to a professionally managed status. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.