Title

Forms Of Growth: How Smes Combine Forms Of Growth To Achieve High Growth

Keywords

Cluster analysis; Forms of growth; Growth profile; High-growth firms

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 five-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.

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Publication Title

Journal of Management and Organization

Volume

18

Issue

1

Number of Pages

81-97

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.2012.18.1.81

Socpus ID

84856876310 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84856876310

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