Cloud computing and firm growth

Timothy DeStefano, Richard Kneller and Jonathan Timmis ()

No 2020-02, Discussion Papers from University of Nottingham, GEP

Abstract: Cloud computing enables a shift in the costs of ICT adoption from investment in fixed capital to pay-on-demand services allowing firms to scale and reorganize. Using new firm-level data we examine the impact of cloud on firm growth, using zip-code-level instruments of the timing of high-speed fiber availability and speeds. Cloud leads to the growth of employment and revenue for young firms, but they become concentrated in fewer establishments. For incumbents, we find smaller scale effects but dispersed activity through closing establishments and moving employment farther from the headquarters. Moreover, cloud adoption leads to worker relocation across establishments within firms.

Keywords: firm growth; the cloud; ICT use; employment; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-ent, nep-ict, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/gep/documents/papers/2020/2020-02.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Cloud Computing and Firm Growth (2020)
Working Paper: Cloud computing and firm growth (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notgep:2020-02

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