Uncertainty and growth of the firm

Using data from a survey of 1097 Dutch firms we investigate the relation between growth of the firm and uncertainty. We focus on the impact of uncertainty on various types of investment, employment demand, and expected maturity of the firm. The special feature of the survey is that it includes data on non-listed (small) firms. We include uncertainty with respect to expected sales and Return on Investment (ROI). We find that sales uncertainty, measured by the conditional variance, has a negative impact on various investment decisions. We include an analysis of financial structure and firm size on the growth-uncertainty relation