This paper investigates the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems in the presence of automatic repeat request (ARQ) feedback. We show that, for a large range of performance metrics, the data transmission efficiency of the ARQ schemes is determined by a set of parameters which are scheme-dependent and not metric-dependent. Then, the results are used to study different aspects of MIMO-ARQ such as the effect of nonlinear power amplifiers, large-scale MIMO-ARQ, adaptive power allocation and different data communication models. The results, which are valid for various forward and feedback channel models, show the efficiency of the MIMO-ARQ techniques in different conditions
