The purpose of this study is to examine what internal barriers arise and how these have been managed during different stages of growth in Swedish high-growth firms. The study’s model of analysis is based on Barth’s (2004) framework of barriers and Greiner’s (1972) model of five phases of growth. Through nine semi-structured interviews with senior managers, the study examines internal tangible and intangible barriers experienced by Swedish high-growth firms. The study’s findings indicate that the companies, initially characterized by a lack of structure, need formal systems due to their rapid growth. The introduction of the systems creates new barriers, making competent leadership a crucial requirement. Barriers related to planning and strategy decrease in later phases of growth, indicating that these must be overcome for successful growth. Overall, the study suggests that internal barriers differ in the respective growth phases and thus emphasizes the importance of adaptive management. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka interna barriärer som uppstår och hur dessa har hanterats under olika tillväxtfaser i svenska high-growth firms. Studiens analysmodell bygger på Barths (2004) framework of barriers och Greiners (1972) model of five phases of growth. Genom nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med högt uppsatta chefer undersöker studien interna tangibla och intangibla barriärer som svenska tillväxtbolag har upplevt. Studiens resultat visar att företagen, som från början kännetecknades av brist på struktur, behöver formella system på grund av sin snabba tillväxt. Införandet av systemen skapar nya barriärer, vilka gör kompetent ledarskap till ett avgörande krav. Barriärer relaterade till planering och strategi minskar i senare tillväxtfaser, vilket indikerar att dessa måste hanteras för fortsatt tillväxt. Sammantaget tyder studien på att interna barriärer skiljer sig åt i respektive tillväxtfas och betonar därmed vikten av följsam styrning.

The study aims to create a deeper understanding and gain more knowledge about the complex and dynamic management processes in gazelle companies, in relation to both social- and financial aspects. We argue that financial challenges, such as funding and cash flow controls, are closely connected to social dimensions as human resources and company-specific strategies. Thus, it is not sufficient to handle them separately, since both social- and financial processes are closely connected and influenced by different stakeholders. The research displayed that human resources management practices and finance practices were more important than the other three dimensions. The companies that participated in our study also seem to have different attitudes towards external investors/stakeholders, depending on if they were founded before or after the financial crisis in 2008.

Empreendedorismo tem sido objeto de incentivo no mundo e no Brasil, dada a sua significante contribuição para o desenvolvimento econômico e social de uma nação. Observa-se que a maioria das empresas, existentes ou novas, evolui de forma lenta e gradual; no entanto, reduzida parcela apresenta um padrão diferente, com crescimento elevado em faturamento ou número de colaboradores: são as empresas de alto crescimento (EACs). Tais empresas são as responsáveis por grande parte da geração de empregos (Birch, 1981; Coad, Daunfeldt, Holzl, Johansson, & Nightingale, 2014; Henrekson & Johansson, 2010; OECD, 2010). A presente tese procurou identificar as variáveis que ajudam a explicar o desempenho das EACs no Brasil, classificadas conforme critério da OECD (2007). Foi conduzida uma pesquisa com 470 empresas brasileiras, que coletou mais de 30 variáveis preditoras categóricas ou métricas, utilizadas no modelo Regressão Logística. Foram identificadas algumas variáveis alinhadas com a literatura e outras menos intuitivas e documentadas. Comprovou-se o aumento da probabilidade de EACs quando se relacionavam com aceleradoras, recebiam premiações ou eram spin-offs de outras empresas. Em função das altas taxas de juros bancários e da cultura empreendedora no Brasil, surpreendeu o impacto positivo de empréstimos bancários e a percepção dos empreendedores sobre registrar marcas comerciais, bem como o impacto negativo da percepção sobre propaganda em mídia digital e doações de instituições de fomento, relacionadas às EACs. Análises adicionais com o subgrupo de EACs caracterizadas como gazelas foram feitas. Embora apresente limitações de surveys e outras, a tese confirmou parte dos resultados da literatura sobre empreendedorismo e identificou avenidas para futuras pesquisas. / Entrepreneurship has been object of encouragement in the world and in Brazil, given its significant contribution to the economic and social development of a nation. It is observed that the majority of companies, existing or new, are developing slowly and gradually; however, small share presents a different pattern, with high growth in sales or number of employees: they are the high growth firms (HGFs). These firms are responsible for a large part of job creation (Birch, 1981; Coad, Daunfeldt, Holzl, Johansson, & Nightingale, 2014, Henrekson & Johansson, 2010, OECD, 2010). This thesis aimed to identify the variables that help to explain the performance of HGFs in Brazil, according to OECD (2007) criterion. A survey with 470 Brazilian companies was conducted, collecting more than 30 categorical or metric predictor variables, used in the Logistic Regression model. Some identified variables were aligned to literature, but others less intuitive or documented. It was confirmed the increase in the probability of HGFs when they related to accelerators, received awards, or were spin-offs of other companies. As a consequence of the high banking interest rates and the entrepreneurship culture in Brazil, surprised the positive impact of bank loans and the entrepreneurs\' perception of trademark registration, as well as the negative impact of perception on advertising in digital media and donations from development institutions, related to HGFs. Additional analyzes with the subgroup of HGFs characterized as gazelles were made. Although it presents limitations of surveys and others, the thesis confirmed part of the results of the literature on entrepreneurship and identified avenues for future researches.

This thesis is a study of firm dynamics, family ownership, and employment protection. It addresses the implications of employment protection on firm productivity and how family owned firms react differently with regard to economic shocks. It also investigates whether family ownership matters for the probability of exhibiting high growth. By using a novel data identification strategy, family ownership is identified in full population register data. The thesis also highlights some important caveats in the official statistics on self-employment. / Denna avhandling behandlar företagsdynamik, familjeägande och anställningsskydd. I avhandlingen analyseras anställningsskyddet och hur det påverkar företagens produktivitet, samt hur familjeägda företag reagerar på chocker inom industrin. I avhandlingen analyseras också hur familjeägande påverkar sannolikheten för ett företag att uppnå en hög tillväxttakt. Genom att kombinera olika statistikkällor kan samtliga familjeföretag i den den svenska företagspopulationen identifieras. Avhandlingen belyser också några av de problem som finns i den officiella statistiken över egenföretagare.

Empreendedorismo tem sido objeto de incentivo no mundo e no Brasil, dada a sua significante contribuição para o desenvolvimento econômico e social de uma nação. Observa-se que a maioria das empresas, existentes ou novas, evolui de forma lenta e gradual; no entanto, reduzida parcela apresenta um padrão diferente, com crescimento elevado em faturamento ou número de colaboradores: são as empresas de alto crescimento (EACs). Tais empresas são as responsáveis por grande parte da geração de empregos (Birch, 1981; Coad, Daunfeldt, Holzl, Johansson, & Nightingale, 2014; Henrekson & Johansson, 2010; OECD, 2010). A presente tese procurou identificar as variáveis que ajudam a explicar o desempenho das EACs no Brasil, classificadas conforme critério da OECD (2007). Foi conduzida uma pesquisa com 470 empresas brasileiras, que coletou mais de 30 variáveis preditoras categóricas ou métricas, utilizadas no modelo Regressão Logística. Foram identificadas algumas variáveis alinhadas com a literatura e outras menos intuitivas e documentadas. Comprovou-se o aumento da probabilidade de EACs quando se relacionavam com aceleradoras, recebiam premiações ou eram spin-offs de outras empresas. Em função das altas taxas de juros bancários e da cultura empreendedora no Brasil, surpreendeu o impacto positivo de empréstimos bancários e a percepção dos empreendedores sobre registrar marcas comerciais, bem como o impacto negativo da percepção sobre propaganda em mídia digital e doações de instituições de fomento, relacionadas às EACs. Análises adicionais com o subgrupo de EACs caracterizadas como gazelas foram feitas. Embora apresente limitações de surveys e outras, a tese confirmou parte dos resultados da literatura sobre empreendedorismo e identificou avenidas para futuras pesquisas. / Entrepreneurship has been object of encouragement in the world and in Brazil, given its significant contribution to the economic and social development of a nation. It is observed that the majority of companies, existing or new, are developing slowly and gradually; however, small share presents a different pattern, with high growth in sales or number of employees: they are the high growth firms (HGFs). These firms are responsible for a large part of job creation (Birch, 1981; Coad, Daunfeldt, Holzl, Johansson, & Nightingale, 2014, Henrekson & Johansson, 2010, OECD, 2010). This thesis aimed to identify the variables that help to explain the performance of HGFs in Brazil, according to OECD (2007) criterion. A survey with 470 Brazilian companies was conducted, collecting more than 30 categorical or metric predictor variables, used in the Logistic Regression model. Some identified variables were aligned to literature, but others less intuitive or documented. It was confirmed the increase in the probability of HGFs when they related to accelerators, received awards, or were spin-offs of other companies. As a consequence of the high banking interest rates and the entrepreneurship culture in Brazil, surprised the positive impact of bank loans and the entrepreneurs\' perception of trademark registration, as well as the negative impact of perception on advertising in digital media and donations from development institutions, related to HGFs. Additional analyzes with the subgroup of HGFs characterized as gazelles were made. Although it presents limitations of surveys and others, the thesis confirmed part of the results of the literature on entrepreneurship and identified avenues for future researches.

Entrepreneurship is the force that drives economic, social and technical progress. A small percentage of firms (5%) is responsible for a disproportionately large amount of net job creation (>50%). Named high growth firms, these successful enterprises have been in the spotlight of research looking into the key drivers of firm growth and growth policy. This dissertation explores high growth from multiple perspectives: at the level of the firm, by understanding how the definition of a high growth firm impacts its characteristics and expected performance over time; at the local level, by isolating the effect of political connections of firm performance and firm entry; and at the macro level, by observing the evolution of entrepreneurship during transition. The first study finds that most HGFs are unable to maintain high growth rates for long, but do register lower volatility in growth rates and a higher chance of survival. Results on growth volatility and persistence vary significantly with the specific definition of “high growth” used as well as with the specific variable used to measure growth (e.g., revenue, employees, profit, productivity). These findings have direct implications for growth policies and programs that depend on identifying HGFs. The second study indicates a strong significant effect of political alignment on revenue growth and firm entry. Larger firms take advantage of political connections for performance gains, while small firms are negatively impacted. Furthermore, alignment reduces entry into entrepreneurship by 8-11%. These findings establish political alignment and local-level business-politics collusion as important dynamics to consider when evaluating entrepreneurship policy in developing countries. The third study describes the interdependence between entrepreneurship, institutions, and transitions. The case of Romania shows that the beginning of transition was characterized by an initial explosion of newly created private enterprises, followed by a declining trend in enterprise creation and, recently, by a new increase in entrepreneurship activity. To conclude, this work contributes new perspectives towards a better understanding of high growth firms and growth policy. Policy implications are targeted towards transition and developing economies that have seen little representation in literature. The goal is to enable successful high growth policies across multiple levels.

This thesis is about firm dynamics, and relates to the size and growth-rate distribution of firms. As such, it consists of an introductory and four separate chapters. The first chapter concerns the size distribution of firms, the two subsequent chapters deal more specically with high-growth firms (HGFs), and the last chapter covers a related topic in distributional estimation theory. The first three chapters are empirically oriented, whereas the fourth chapter develops a statistical concept. / <p>QC 20130215</p>

Customer retention is crucial for a firms long term success and its application and dynamics are particularly interesting in the context of high growth firms. High growth firms are commonly characterised by having limited resources and operating in constant change in structure and routines which can affect the way the firms are able to work with customer retention. This research aims to investigate how high growth firms perceive customer retention. This research also aims to identify major difficulties high growth firms have working with customer retention as well as what strategies are used to counteract those difficulties. In order to investigate this topic, a qualitative study based on data from semi-structured interviews with seven high growth firms was conducted. My finding suggest that high growth firms has a great prioritising on customer retention. The findings also identified that limited resources and changing structure and routines is a challenge for high growth firms working with customer retention. This research identified key strategies high growth firms use to work with customer retention, being a quality customer service, customer focused culture, and relationship bonds.

The topic of this thesis is economic dynamism. The five articles contribute to the literature on firm entry and firm growth. Studies are based on a dataset covering all Swedish limited liability firms between 1997 and 2010. The first article investigates conditions for firm entry in Sweden, distinguishing regular entrants from entrants that survive for at least two years, modelling the firm entry decision using count data models. While high income and a well-educated population had a positive effect, the effect was more important for surviving entrants. The second article uses a similar method, but focuses on wholesale industries and distinguishes between regular entry and in migration of firms, i.e. when an incumbent firm relocates its operations. Access to a university, many educated workers and low local taxes had positive effects. Better access to infrastructure had a strong positive effect on entrants, but it was smaller for in-migrating firms. The third article investigates if the industry context matters for whether Gibrat’s law holds, i.e. whether firm growth is independent of firm size. The law is found more likely to be rejected in industries with a high minimum efficient scale and a large number of firms located in metropolitan areas, but more likely to hold in industries with high market concentration and more group ownership. The fourth and fifth article contribute to the high-growth firms (HGFs) literature. In the fourth article it is examined whether the way HGFs are defined matters for the policy implications. It is found that the economic contributions of HGFs differ significantly depending on definition. Young firms are however more likely to be HGFs irrespective of definition. The fifth article considers the frequent argument that policymakers should target high-tech firms, i.e., firms with high R&amp;D intensity, because such firms are thought more likely to become HGFs. We examine this assumption by studying the industry distribution of HGFs. Results indicate that industries with high R&amp;D intensity, ceteris paribus, can be expected to have a lower share of HGFs than can industries with lower R&amp;D intensity. By contrast, we find that HGFs are overrepresented in service industries with a high share of human capital.

Bakgrund: Snabbväxande företag bidrar med majoriteten av alla nyskapade jobb i Sverige. Tidigare forskning har dock visat att dessa företag får problem i och med snabb tillväxt, något som leder till att de inte blir uthålliga över tid. Vid en kartläggning av tidigare studier påträffades en avsaknad av forskning som har till syfte att förklara varför snabbväxande företag inte är uthålliga, varav vi ansåg det vara av intresse att studera fenomenet interna tillväxthinder.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att genom grundares perspektiv identifiera interna tillväxthinder inom snabbväxande företag. I samband med detta undersöks hur de snabbväxande företagen tar sig an och överkommer dessa barriärer. Genomförande: Denna studie har utgått från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod, med ett induktivt angreppssätt för att kunna utforska fenomenet interna tillväxthinder. Studien har genomförts med utgångs-punkt i intervjuer med fyra grundare av tillväxtföretag. Slutsats: Studien har kunnat identifiera fyra områden som utifrån företagsgrundares berättelser haft särskild betydelse för överkomsten av tillväxthinder. Studien indikerar att de fyra områdena kan utvecklas till tillväxthinder om snabbväxarna inte arbetar med dem på rätt sätt, men kan med största sannolikhet omvandlas till tillväxtmöjligheter om grundaren inser värdet av att arbeta med dessa. / Background: High-growth firms contribute to a majority of all newly created jobs in Sweden. Recent studies have shown that these companies encounter problems and growth barriers as a result of their rapid growth. After investigating the study field of high-growth firms we found an absence of research that seeks to explain why they are not persistent over time. We consider it to be of interest to study the phenomenon of internal growth barriers.  Aim: The aim of this study is to identify internal growth barriers in high-growth firms through the perspective of the founders. In relation to this we examine how the high-growth firms undertake and overcomes these barriers. Completion: This study is based on a qualitative research strategy, with an inductive study approach, to enable an exploration of the phenomenon internal growth barriers. The study was conducted based on interviews with four founders of high-growth firms. Conclusion: The study has been able to identify four areas based on the founders' dictums, which had special significance for the emergence of internal growth barriers. The four areas can be developed to emerging growth obstacles if the high-growth firms do not consider their importance. This study suggests that the growth barriers most likely can be converted to growth potentials if the firms realize the importance to develop them.