ABSTRACT

High-growth firms – also called gazelles – have the potential to create jobs and to drive regional development. Yet, there remains a lack of understanding about how to best support these companies in their growth process. Hence, the types of support offered to these firms are often misdirected and fail to provide relevant support to appropriate types of businesses. This paper focuses on one support policy aimed at support gazelles to cope with their growth challenges, namely intermediary actors, who provide matchmaking, advise and networking activities directed to gazelles. More specifically, this paper aims at identifying what challenges are encountered by gazelles and whether the support provided by intermediary actors is matching the need of support. The empirical focus of the paper is on gazelles within the construction industry and situated in the Swedish municipality Norrköping. Findings indicate that challenges relate to recruitment, interactions with the public sector, lack of support and entrepreneurial personalities/skills. These challenges overwhelm the everyday work of entrepreneurs, who struggle to find solutions, despite the support of intermediaries. Implications for high-growth companies, intermediary actors and policymakers are discussed with the aim of finding a better match between high-growth challenges and intermediary support.

摘要

高增长企业——也称为瞪羚——具有创造就业机会和推动区域发展的潜力。然而，对于如何在成长过程中最好地支持这些公司，仍然缺乏了解。因此，向这些公司提供的支持类型往往被误导，无法为适当类型的企业提供相关支持。本文重点介绍一项旨在支持瞪羚应对其成长挑战的支持政策，即为瞪羚提供牵线搭桥、建议和网络活动的中介机构。更具体地说，本文旨在确定瞪羚遇到的挑战以及中介行为者提供的支持是否与支持需求相匹配。该论文的实证重点是建筑行业内的瞪羚，位于瑞典诺尔雪平市。调查结果表明，挑战与招聘、与公共部门的互动、缺乏支持和创业个性/技能有关。这些挑战压倒了企业家的日常工作，他们努力寻找解决方案，尽管有中间人的支持。讨论了对高增长公司、中介机构和政策制定者的影响，目的是在高增长挑战和中介支持之间找到更好的匹配。尽管有中间人的支持，他们仍在努力寻找解决方案。讨论了对高增长公司、中介机构和政策制定者的影响，目的是在高增长挑战和中介支持之间找到更好的匹配。尽管有中间人的支持，他们仍在努力寻找解决方案。讨论了对高增长公司、中介机构和政策制定者的影响，目的是在高增长挑战和中介支持之间找到更好的匹配。