Model Growth: Do employee-owned businesses deliver sustainable performance?

Research by Cass Business School, sponsored by The John Lewis Partnership, looks at how employee-owned businesses performed before and during the recession. Based on an in-depth survey of senior executives and an analysis of the financial data of over 250 companies, the study finds that employee-owned firms:

• create new jobs more quickly than conventionally structured businesses - they recruit more employees at a faster rate and reward employees with higher wages;

• are nevertheless as profitable as conventional businesses;

• are more resilient: their performance is more stable over business cycles, and they have outperformed the market during the downturn;

• are also more robust: employee-owned businesses have a lower risk of business failure.

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