A Quantitative Content Analysis of the Characteristics of Rapid-Growth Firms and Their Founders

This study seeks to determine what distinguishes rapid-growth firms--defined as firms with a three-year compound annual sales growth rate of 80% or above--from slow-growth firms.First, a review of the literature on high-growth firms uncovers a comprehensive list of factors that potentially enable companies to achieve and maintain rapid growth.This list includes superior products, prior experience, a growth-oriented mission statement, and other factors.Data from narrative case studies of fifty rapid-growth and fifty slow-growth firms are used to identify factors that most strongly differentiate the two types of firms. Content analysis of the case studies reveals four categories of attributes that mark rapid-growth firms.These categories include founder characteristics, firm attributes, business practices, and human resource management (HRM) practices.In the category of business practices, creating unique value is a strong predictor of rapid growth, while the variable entrepreneurial story predicts growth in the founder characteristics category.In the HRM category, training proved to be much more prevalent in high-growth firms. A conceptual model of all four categories is presented and discussed. (SAA)