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Entrance of new firms in the industry, according to existing theories, prepares the ground for competition, evolution, growth and innovation that can potentially lead to growth and economic development. This will come true only if the new firms have the ability to survive in economic activity for a reasonable time and are not forced out of the industry in the early years of their entrance. Several reasons have been studied for the exit of industrial firms in the literature of industrial economics. It is believed that the level of industrial technology used by the firm at the early stage of its activities is the main and effective factor that determines the exit time of the firm. This paper is aiming at examining the effects of technology level on exit probability of the new firms in industrial economy of Iran during the years 2001 to 2005. Data of manufacturing firms is extracted from the censuses conducted by the Statistical Center of Iran and the technology level is determined according to OECD classification. Cox hazard model is used in this study to determine the exit probability. The results of this study show that the technology level of industry has had a meaningfully negative impact on the exit probability of new firms. In other words, the firms entering the industry with medium-and high-technology level have a lower probability of exit.  

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Industrial firms play important roles in creating jobs and products nationwide, thus, their survival is of vital importance. The existing studies on closure of the firms show that various factors contribute to the exit of firms from the industry which industry growth is the main factor in this context. Industry growth affects the exit of firms in different ways, for instance, industries having high growth are of high entry rate that influences significantly on the firms exit. This study examines the industry growth effect on exit of firms from industry and uses an artificial neural network (ANN) model for this purpose. The statistical population includes 10000 industrial firms at 4-digit level ISIC codes during the third national development plan over the 2000-2004. The industry growth is calculated with different indexes such as absolute growth and mean growth rates. The results show that industry growth followed at firm size can explain the most of exit incentives of the firms.