A Special Generation of US Companies Remains on Top

时间：2026-02-23

A small group of big companies tend to play an outsize role in the US economy. Where do such companies come from, and how do they become so influential? Seeking to answer these questions, a team of researchers that includes Chicago Booth’s Yueran Ma focused on three lists—from 1917, 1955, and 2018—that ranked the top companies. The researchers collected further information about the ranked companies from corporate websites, regulatory filings, and other sources.

A surprising pattern emerged: In the industrial sector, many of the companies on the 2018 list were founded about a century ago. The researchers find that this cohort of companies, a group they call a “special generation,” emerged during the Second Industrial Revolution, when adoption costs for new, capital-intensive, and highly scalable technology fell sharply. Companies that arose during this pivotal period were able to adopt the technology right away, and they gained efficiencies as they learned by doing. The cohort retained its early-adoption advantage, allowing its dominance to persist even 100 years later.

An analysis of 2018’s top companies (as listed by Fortune) reveals that in the industrial sector (which includes manufacturing and mining), a large share of companies was created between around 1880 and 1920. The birth of this cohort coincides with the period of the Second Industrial Revolution.

Looking back at Fortune’s 1955 list of the largest industrials, as well as a 1917 ranking from an article in Business History Review, the researchers likewise find a clustering of companies that were launched during the Second Industrial Revolution. They refer to this group as a special generation of companies.

The companies at the top of each list changed over time. Of the industrial companies that were on the 2018 list and launched between 1880 and 1920, only about a third also appeared on the 1955 list. Some members of the special generation rose to the top later.

For example, in food manufacturing—a core part of the industrial sector—PepsiCo and Kellogg were among the largest food companies in 2018 but not in 1955. General Foods and Ralston Purina were big in 1955 but were absorbed or dissolved by 2018. While the top companies changed from one list to the next, many companies founded around 1900 gained a lasting advantage through entering the market during the Second Industrial Revolution.

The special generation is evident in the median ages of the top industrial companies: about 30 years old in 1917 . . .

. . . about 60 years old in 1955 . . .

. . . and about 100 years old in 2018. The entire age distribution shifts rightward over time, reflecting the continued dominance of the same cohort even as it grows older.

The shifting age distribution is also evident in Germany, where top industrial companies were relatively young in 1913 and significantly older in 2018, consistent with the persistence of a special generation. In Britain, however, top young industrial companies in 1919 were replaced by a new set of young ones in 1948, and then again in 2018.

There is no evidence of a special generation among top retailers and wholesalers in the United States. The age distribution of this group has been quite stable over time—the median ages in 1956 and 2018 were 62 and 75, respectively.

The research finds a clustering of top companies in the services industry, much like in industrials except that these companies dated to around 1960-80. It is possible that this cohort of companies—born during the Third Industrial Revolution—will prove to be another special generation. However, several more decades of data are needed to assess whether the dominance of these companies will persist.