The social services sector is among the fastest-growing industries, but it has gained little attention in the debate regarding firm growth. This article analyzes firm growth in relation to firm size using payroll expenses as our indicator for both firm growth and firm size. We apply structural equation modeling and full maximum likelihood estimation using Austrian data comprising all non-profit social service providers. After 2013, fewer firms have been entering and more have been exiting the sector; however, we find that growing in size is still not associated with higher growth rates. Our study emphasizes the role of small organizations in remaining a growth sector.

社会服务部门是增长最快的行业之一，但在关于公司增长的辩论中却鲜有关注。本文使用工资支出作为我们企业成长和企业规模的指标来分析企业相对于企业规模的增长。我们使用包括所有非营利性社会服务提供商的奥地利数据来应用结构方程模型和最大似然估计。2013 年之后，进入该行业的公司越来越少，而退出该行业的公司越来越多；然而，我们发现规模的增长仍然与更高的增长率无关。我们的研究强调了小型组织在保持增长部门方面的作用。