Some of the forces which cause a diseconomy of scale are listed below:

Consequently, dismissing because of the principle involved may, in the short term, result in a diseconomy.

Solutions to the diseconomy of scale for large firms involve changing the company into one or more small firms.

When specific diseconomy is on the increase, this means an institution or industry is increasingly counterproductive to its original intentions.

Mutualist Kevin Carson argues that transportation is a natural diseconomy of scale.

A negative externality (also called "external cost" or "external diseconomy") is an action of a product on consumers that imposes a negative effect on a third party; it is "social cost".

Specific diseconomy is another term Illich used, as a measure of the degree of institutional counterproductivity that is occurring-referring to the exact degree to which, for example, the medical industry induces illness, educational institutions induce ignorance, the judicial system perpetuates injustice, or national defense may make a nation less secure.