Growth is an important objective of the modern business enterprise. It is the means by which firms adjust to the environmental factors affecting their industries and individual operations. In turn, changes in firm size and organization, including entry and exit, determine the structural characteristics of a given industry at a given point in time. Although industry structure can be described statically, obviously growth processes leading to structural changes must be analyzed over time. This report uses several static and dynamic models to describe and analyze the process of structural change in the grain industries of the North Central Region.

The general objective of this study was to determine the direction and magnitude of the major changes in firm organization and growth processes associated with the structural changes in the North Central Region (NCR) grain-marketing industry. More specifically, for each major type of firm ownership, each subindustry and the entire NCR grain industry, attempts were made to: (a) measure the changes in firm size and industry concentration, (b) classify these changes into basic components of specialization and diversification and (c) assess the relative importance of these components.