Scale-ups, or scaling firms, provide an important contribution to the economy. However, there is little understanding of the characteristics of their scaling strategies, compared to the high-growth strategies of start-ups and mature firms. To address this, we build on the Penrosean view of firm growth and the literature on high-growth firms to identify the critical growth-enabling activities of scaling firms with digital business models: financing, innovation, digitization, and acquisitions. Using cluster analysis of a sample of 184 Unicorn and emerging Unicorn scale-ups with digital business models, we identify four distinct activity configurations, or scale-up modes: network growers, focused scalers, organic innovators, and constricted scalers. We discuss the theoretical implications for the literature on scaling firms, Penrose's theory of firm growth in the digitization era, and firm growth research more generally.

扩大规模或扩大公司规模，为经济做出了重要贡献。然而，与初创企业和成熟企业的高增长战略相比，对其规模化战略的特点知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，我们以彭罗斯的公司增长观点和关于高增长公司的文献为基础，确定具有数字商业模式的扩展公司的关键增长促进活动：融资、创新、数字化和收购。通过对具有数字商业模式的 184 家独角兽和新兴独角兽扩展样本进行聚类分析，我们确定了四种不同的活动配置或扩展模式：网络种植者、专注的扩展者、有机创新者和受限的扩展者。我们讨论了关于扩展公司的文献的理论意义，彭罗斯