Many excellent surveys of the literature on business growth and survival have appeared in the last decade. This article focuses on small firm literature on survival and growth, drawing on largely non-size-specific surveys only when the intersection between their subject matter and that of small firm growth and survival is significant. The focus is moreover primarily on testable or tested theories, implying a neglect of theory, however intrinsically interesting, which offers no (immediately) testable or tested implications. It is important to note at the outset that the industrial economics literature in general has a rather disparate definition of the term ‘small firm’ from the small business literature as located in the small business journals.