Title: Rapidly-growing firms and their main characteristics: a longitudinal study from the USA

Authors: Christian Keen; Hamid Etemad

Addresses: University of Southern Denmark, 55 Campusvej, 5230 Odense, Denmark. ' Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, 1001 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, H3A-1G5, Canada

Abstract: This paper explores the topic of high-growth phenomenon and its agents. High-growth enterprises are primarily small and medium-sized firms that attain very high-growth rates for at least five years. The paper presents a review of the pertinent literature to guide its formulation of hypotheses concerning the theoretical relations between high-growth and location, size and temporal characteristics of the high-growth enterprises. Using non-parametric tests, we analyse a 21-year longitudinal database of privately held rapidly growing enterprises from the USA. This analysis indicates that these firms are relatively smaller enterprises and their high growth rates are not restricted to a particular location, industrial region, size or time period. The findings of this analysis point to a population of high-growth enterprises with diverse locations, sizes and times with important implications for scholarly research and public policy analysis and formulation.

Keywords: longitudinal analysis; micro firms; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; rapidly-growing companies; RGEs; USA; United States; high-growth firms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEV.2011.043382

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 2011 Vol.3 No.4, pp.344 - 358

Published online: 24 Oct 2014 *

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