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PIMS and the FTC line‐of‐business data: A comparison
Author(s) -
Marshall Cheri T.,
Buzzell Robert D.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/smj.4250110403
Subject(s) - business , line (geometry) , industrial organization , mathematics , geometry
The PIMS data base and the FTC Line‐of‐business data base have both been widely used in industrial organization research and business strategy research. However, both data bases have been criticized because of their sample compositions, their measurement methodologies, and the underlying data structures. This study was designed to explore the issues that have been raised about the two data sets by comparing findings produced by them. Since criticism of the two data sets are dissimilar, it is highly unlikely that comparable results would be obtained if the quality of either or both data sets was deficient. This study shows that the data sets generally produce highly comparable descriptive and relational results. However, a number of disagreements do arise, and these are traced to idiosyncratic causes, rather than to the kinds of systematic shortcomings suggested by critics.