Beyond Firm Size: Revenue Performance and Structure of Firms in the Ecuadorian Education Sector—Panel Data Analysis 2015–2025

Although financial performance at the firm level is understudied in Latin American educational sector, the theory predicts firm size as one of its main correlates. Using near-census level panel data (12,031 firm-year observations, 2968 firms, 2015–2025) from Superintendencia de Compañías, Valores y Seguros, Ecuador, the study employs descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, log-log regression, and k-means clustering. The regression with year and city fixed effects and clustered standard errors reveals that assets and employment are positively and significantly associated with revenue (elasticities are 0.815 and 0.353; R2 = 0.619). A model with firm and year fixed effects reveals a comparable within-firm elasticity of assets (0.797) and much smaller employment elasticity (0.163). K-means clustering of the 2025 cross-section identifies a few large firms (0.44%), many medium-size firms (12.16%) and a vast majority of small firms (87.40%). Internal validity criteria show no consensus on the optimal k; the three-cluster solution is chosen as parsimonious, substantively sensible, and relatively stable, with k = 2, 4 and 5 reported for transparency. This study provides an empirical benchmark for firms in Ecuador’s education sector, where the literature has concentrated almost exclusively on educational outcomes so far.