There are nearly 6,000 firms with revenues exceeding $1 billion, representing nearly two-thirds of global corporate earnings. The 10 percent of those firms with the largest profits produce 80 percent of the group’s total earnings. A new study has found that firms in the top 1 percent outperform the median firm across the board, with 20 times more revenue, 12 times more employees, 2.9 times more R&D intensity, 23 percent more labor productivity, and 14 percent more fixed capital productivity.

Fact of the Week: The Least Profitable Firms Among the World’s Largest Companies Have Higher Labor Productivity and Lower Fixed Capital Productivity than the Most Profitable Firms

Fact of the Week: The Least Profitable Firms Among the World's Largest Companies Have Higher Labor Productivity and Lower Fixed Capital Productivity than the Most Profitable Firms

U.S. microbusinesses—defined as having fewer than 10 employees—performed $5.2 billion of R&D domestically in 2019, according to the American Business Survey. This was a 21 percent increase from $4.3 billion in 2018.

Fact of the Week: Microbusinesses Performed $5.2 billion of R&D in the US in 2019

Productivity rather than profitability has a higher impact on the chances of a new firm's survival, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: Productivity Matters More Than Profitability For New Firms’ Survival and Growth in the United States

Fact of the Week: Productivity Matters More Than Profitability For New Firms' Survival and Growth in the United States

U.S. manufacturing labor productivity (measured in output per hour of labor) increased 43 percent between 2001 and 2011. However, over the next ten years, productivity fell by 2.8 percent.

Fact of the Week: US Manufacturing Labor Productivity Fell by 2.8 Percent Between 2011 and 2021

Businesses in the European Union lag U.S. businesses not just in the amount they invest in R&D, but also in their capabilities to transform these investments into productivity gains, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: U.S. High-Tech Firms Gain Two-And-A-Half Times More Productivity Than European High-Tech Firms From The Same Level Of R&D Investment

A recent report analyzed how firm size relates to work tasks to discover how firm size impacts employee tasks, finding that employees at large firms, despite having narrowly defined jobs, perform more non-routine analytical tasks and use information and communication technologies (ICT) more intensively than equivalent workers at small firms.

Fact of the Week: Employees at Large Firms Perform More Non-Routine Problem-Solving Than Small Firm Employees.

Companies with less than 9 employees, also known as microbusinesses, reported $7.6 billion in R&D investments in 2022, of which $6.7 billion was invested domestically and $5.7 billion was performed by the microbusiness itself.

Fact of the Week: US Microbusinesses Reported $7.6 Billion in R&D Costs in 2022

If U.S. corporations brought back all their profits, labor productivity would have been 5.1 percent higher in R&D intensive industries and 4.5 percent higher in IT-intensive industries in 2014, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: Labor Productivity In 2014 Would Have Been 5 Percent Higher If All Us Corporations Fully Repatriated Their Overseas Profits

Policymakers tend to give an outsized share of attention and credit to small businesses, touting their role in entrepreneurship, but in doing so they often conflate small businesses with new businesses. Start-ups are important for their contributions to creative destruction and innovation, but small businesses are less efficient because they cannot take advantages of economies of scale.

Fact of the Week: US Small Businesses Are 47 Percent as Productive as Big Businesses

Related

Fact of the Week: The Least Profitable Firms Among the World’s Largest Companies Have Higher Labor Productivity and Lower Fixed Capital Productivity than the Most Profitable Firms

Fact of the Week: Microbusinesses Performed $5.2 billion of R&D in the US in 2019

Fact of the Week: Productivity Matters More Than Profitability For New Firms’ Survival and Growth in the United States