What happens to gazelles? The importance of dynamic management strategy

By Simon C. Parker, D. Storey, A. van Witteloostuijn. 2010

320 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The starting point of this study is Gibrat’s Law, which is contrasted with strategic management. This logic is subsequently applied to a group of remarkably dynamic, high-growth firms: gazelles. Strategic management theory emphasises the importance of firms adjusting strategies in response to changes in the external environment. In our study, it is used to explain several key empirical findings using a novel British data set containing information on more than 100 gazelles. These findings help explain: (1) why Gibrat’s Law of random firm growth processes does not generally hold, (2) which strategy and environmental variables have a predictable influence on firm performance and (3) why routine application of ‘best practice’ strategies is unlikely to foster firm growth in a changing economic environment. In so doing, this paper contributes to the large body of literature on small-firm growth.

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad6f37ed0eab8c2aeb3f9bc6ba80e9dae1001335

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Citations in the corpus

Reconceptualizing entrepreneurial exit : divergent exit routes and their drivers (2010, unknown): “, 1997: Mitchell, 1994), but there is little theoretical guidance suggesting what types of liquidations or sales entrepreneurs consider, and why (Storey et al., 2005).”
Is the R&D behaviour of fast-growing SMEs different? Evidence from CIS III data for 16 countries (2008, background): “Most other studies employ a relative cutoff point and use the top growing 5% or 10% of SMEs (see Schreyer 2000; Parker et al. 2005 ).”
The strategic management of high-growth firms:a review and theoretical conceptualization (2017, unknown): “Extant studies also argued that the role of innovation in HGFs may be contingent on firm strategy (Parker et al., 2010; Stam and Wennberg, 2009).”
Optimism and chance: The elephants in the entrepreneurship room (2011, background): “…such temporal volatility, the proportion of years in which these high-growth firms actually experienced such growth was approximately only one in four.2 Finally, over the medium term, Parker et al. (2010) find that gazelles in one period return to the industry average in a later period.”
Competencies and Institutions Fostering High-growth Firms (2008, unknown): “Most HGFs do not display sustained growth, but follow a more complex pattern; see, e.g., Parker et al. (2005).”
High-growth firms: Introduction to the special section (2014, background): “Parker et al. (2010) observe that HGFs do not display persistence in their growth performance once the high-growth event is finished.”
Strategic entrepreneurship and small firm growth in Ghana (2014, background): “Since entrepreneurship involves identifying and exploiting opportunities to create wealth (Zahra and Dess, 2001), and strategic management scholars aim to identify why some firms are better at creating wealth than others (Hitt et al., 2011; Parker et al., 2010), when brought together, strategic entr”
What do we really mean when we talk about ‘exit’? A critical review of research on entrepreneurial exit (2014, unknown): “Similarly, there are divergent motives for people to leave entrepreneurship (Parker et al., 2010).”
What are the factors that affect innovation in growing SMEs (2012, background): “Introduction In entrepreneurship and management studies the innovativeness of growing firms has been discovered to be important in value and job creation (Acs et al., 2008; Autio, 2009; Autio and Höeltzl, 2008; Bhide, 2000; Birch, 1979; Delmar et al., 2003; Deschryvere, 2008; Henrekson and Johansson”
High-growth firms and technological knowledge: do gazelles follow exploration or exploitation strategies? (2014, methodology): “To this purpose, we derive indicators able to describe the structure of knowledge and qualify firms’ innovation strategies.”
Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence (2010, unknown): “Thus, continuous entry of new firms is required to achieve net job creation.36 Parker et al. (2005) also report that only a small subset of the Gazelles show sustained growth.”