Abstract:

This article deals with the life cycle of agribusiness sector organizations in Tunisia. It presents the results of two hundred fifty six Tunisian small and medium businesses surveyed on issues of organizational life cycle. Although much research on the life cycle of the organization can be found in the literature, however, there is a lack remarkable bridge of this type of research in emerging countries such as Tunisia. In this paper we begin by examining twenty lifecycle models of organization that have been proposed in the literature. Each model identifies the characteristics of organizations to certain phases of development. A summary of the various phases of the model is derived. This model consists of five phases: start, growth, maturity, decline and revitalization. Then an organizational measurement framework developed by lester, Parnell an Carrahar (2003) was introduced. This framework organizes the criteria for organizational measure of each phase of the organization’s life cycle. Identifying the profiles of Tunisian organizations and categories of the lifecycle phases of the organization are determined following the use of cluster analysis (hierarchical and non- hierarchical) and analysis of variance.