Survival and performance of strategic restructuring spin-offs and necessity spin-offs

In the past decade, researchers have increasingly explored the performance of spin-offs created by events that adversely affected the incumbent. Extant literature has, however, mainly focused on employee made necessity spin-offs, while the post entry performance of incumbent made strategic restructuring spin-offs has largely been ignored. This may result in an overestimation of the performance of the former type of spin off. In the current study, we explore the post entry performance and survivability of 26 strategic restructuring and necessity spin-offs from four Danish shipyard closures over almost four decades. We find that strategic restructuring spin-offs outperform necessity spin-offs on several growth parameters including turnover and employment. Surprisingly, we also find strategic restructuring spin offs to have higher survival rate than the necessity spin-offs. The study adds to our knowledge on the relationship between spin-off type and firm growth and suggest that further attention should be given to spin-offs created in strategic restructurings.