Abstract
Adopting methods which have been developed elsewhere in analysing the dynamics of profitability, this paper investigates the persistence of profits for a UK sample which includes, for the first time, a contingent of service sector firms. Persistence of profits is found to be marginally higher in services than in manufacturing. Industry-wide characteristics are found to be important in determining long-run profitability within manufacturing but not within services. Firm size appears to be a determinant of persistence of profit in manufacturing but not in services, suggesting that the most prevalent types of barrier to entry may differ between the two sectors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 105-117 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | The Service Industries Journal |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 1996 |