Empirical Study on the Effect of Environmental Factors on Enterprise Growth - Comparative Analysis of Chinese Large Scale Industrial Enterprises and Small/Medium Industrial Enterprises

Based on resource dependence theory and organizational ecology by conducting literature review and theoretical analysis, we constructed an indicator system of how the growth of enterprises affects the regional environment. We selected large-scale industrial enterprises and small/medium industrial enterprises from 2007-2011 with five years of data from 29 provinces and cities in China to perform a comparative analysis. A correlation analysis shows that (1) natural resource & infrastructure environment, business environment, human resource environment, social & cultural environment, science & technology environment, political environment have an influence on enterprise growth, but show some differences; and that (2) partial correlation and regression analysis show that natural resources & infrastructure environment and business environment have a very significant impact on the results for the two types of enterprises. The human resource environment and social & cultural environment have no significant impact on the results for the two types of enterprises. Science & technology environment in large-scale industrial enterprises have a better positive impact than in small/medium industrial enterprises. In contrast, political environment in small/medium industrial enterprises have a better positive impact than in largescale industrial enterprises.