Forms of growth: How SMEs combine forms of growth to achieve high growth

    Authors

    J. L. B. Navarro; J. C. Casillas;B. Barringer

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Manag. Organ.

    Keywords

    high-growth firms; forms of growth; cluster analysis; growth profile; CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT; SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH; FIRM GROWTH; ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION; SUBSIDIARY PERFORMANCE; ENTRY MODE; DIVERSIFICATION; CAPABILITIES; STRATEGIES; INDUSTRY; Management

    Abstract

    The majority of the literature on high-growth firms focuses on two main aspects: growth factors and rates of growth, but little information exists on how SMEs grow. Past research has implicitly considered high-growth firms as a homogeneous category of businesses, however, in reality, they use different forms of growth: domestic and international geographical expansion, the launch of new related and unrelated products, product improvement, client retention and the acquisition of new clients. This work attempts to identify how high-growth SMEs benefit from different combinations of forms of growth to perform successfully. A sample of 89 high-growth SMEs was selected - with an annual growth rate of more than 10% over a 5-year period - and, by means of a cluster analysis, we found four significantly different combinations of forms of growth. To externally test the robustness of those combinations, a group of demographic variables was considered (size, age, sector), as well as a set of variables related to the growth strategy (personnel involvement, the extent to which growth is a priority, perceived growth with respect to competitors), which support the existence of significant differences between the groups.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Management & Organization

    Volume

    18

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    81

    Last Page

    97

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000300552700006

    ISSN

    1833-3672

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