Ciclo de vida organizacional: descri？？o de três estágios de desenvolvimento das pequenas empresas em quatro especificidades

this article aims to present theoretical models to describe the stages of organizational development of small business. the lack of consensus and validity about theoretical constructs for the stages of small business development hinders the progress of empirical research on the topic. the constructs presented here were evaluated with quantitative instruments. the constructs were described and then grouped in four of organizational specificities of small business. the paper presents results from a field survey of 71 small companies located in s？o paulo, brazil. statistical techniques of cluster analysis and correspondence analysis were employed in data analysis. results and discussions showed that the scale used in data collection serves the purpose of classifying small businesses in specific stages of their development cycle.