Scale-Ups and High-Growth Firms: Theory, Definitions, and Measurement

This open access book goes into the details of the characteristics of scale-ups, touching upon various theoretical perspectives (stages of growth models, the role of intangible capital, the tradeoffs between fixed costs and marginal costs) relating to firm growth, to provide a clear definition of this emerging concept. Given the disproportionately large economic contribution of a small number of fast-growing firms, there has been growing interest in a category of dynamic ventures called ＂scale-ups＂. The term was popularized by Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists before receiving attention from academics and public policy makers. However, there remains considerable confusion regarding what a scale-up actually is.

This is an open access book.

Alex Coad is Professor at Waseda Business School (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) and is interested in the areas of firm growth, firm performance, entrepreneurship, and innovation policy. Alex has published over 90 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. According to Google Scholar, Alex has over 12’000 citations and an H-index of 51. Alex is Editor at the journals ’Research Policy’ (Financial Times Top 50 list of journals for Business Schools) and ’Small Business Economics’ and Associate Editor at ’Industrial and Corporate Change’. Previously Alex obtained a Ph.D. from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Sant’Anna School, Pisa, Italy, and held academic positions at the Max Planck Institute (Jena, DE), Aalborg University (Denmark), SPRU (Univ. Sussex, UK), and CENTRUM Graduate Business School (Lima, Peru) and also being Economic Analyst at the European Commission (IRI group, JRC-IPTS, Sevilla). In December 2016, Alex received the 2016 Nelson Prize at University of California Berkeley.

Anders Bornhäll (Institute of Retail Economics, Stockholm, Sweden) has focused his research on institutional barriers to entrepreneurship and firm growth. In his dissertation, ＂Unseen Job Creators and Firm Growth Barriers,＂ he studied two potential barriers to firm growth: capital constraints and employment protection legislation. Some of Anders’ current research includes how firms use non-organic growth methods, how firms and local regions strengthen their resilience towards economic shocks, and how firms adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sven-Olov Daunfeldt is a Professor of Economics, currently serving as the Chief Economist of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. Sven-Olov received his Ph.D from Umeå University in 2001 and has since then worked in a number of different research areas such as labour economics, public finance, political economy, and industrial organization. His research is nowadays primarily focused on firm dynamics, with a special emphasize on high-growth firms and the institutional conditions for firm growth. Sven-Olov has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in well-renowned journals such as the Journal of Population Economics, Regional Studies, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Small Business Economics.

Alexander McKelvie is a Professor of Entrepreneurship, and currently serves as Interim Dean at the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. In 2020, he was named a Justin Longenecker Fellow from USASBE, the highest honor they provide for contributions to support SMEs. Alex’s research deals with questions regarding two main areas: how and why do new firms grow and how do entrepreneurs make decisions with an emphasis on opportunities, dealing with uncertainty, effectuation, failure, and addiction. Alex’s research has received a number of major international awards, including the best doctoral dissertation in entrepreneurship from the National Federation of Independent Businesses and from leading entrepreneurship conferences. McKelvie has published his work in the most influential entrepreneurship journals and he is on the editorial review boards of multiple journals. His work has also been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, and Inc. Magazine, among other outlets.