2nd International Scientific Conference on Recent Advances in Information Technology, Tourism, Economics, Management and Agriculture – ITEMA 2018 – Graz, Austria, November 8, 2018, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS published by the Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; ISBN 978-86-80194-13-4
Even though past theory has highlighted high-growth enterprises (HGEs) as important determinant enhancing national economy development, research of enterprise growth remains heterogeneous and deficient in its nature. The most recognizable feature of HGEs is for sure their outstanding growth rate encouraged with different growth factors, one of them being financial resources, as one of the most important elements of development and growth process of all enterprises. Achieving outstanding growth rates can largely increase enterprise risk, as uncontrolled growth can drastically change financial structure of a particular enterprise. Past theory suggests that events enabling high-growth rates are very likely a consequence of short-term changes. Nevertheless, significant proportion of enterprises is listed among HGEs in several time periods. Thus, the main objective of our research is to find out if companies listed as HGEs several times during the analyzed six-years period, statistically significantly differs from HGEs, that were listed among HGEs only once; we were analyzing differences regarding the perceived accessibility to different financial resources, and differences regarding their financial performance. Research is based on the random sample of N = 150 HGEs from Slovenia, which have been at least once, among 2011 and 2016, listed as HGE in the population of HGEs, defined by Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES). CATI (Computer-assisted telephone) and CAWI (Computer-assisted web) interviewing was used to obtain the sample data. The survey was conducted in spring 2018. Our results suggest that enterprises that were listed as HGEs several times during analyzed time period, statistically significantly perceive better accessibility to different financial resources (i.e. financial resources from venture capitalists; financial resources from banks; government subsidies; and financial resources from EU funds). From the financial performance view-point these HGEs are also more profitable and have higher added value per employee. Our results are supporting past theory emphasizing that the definition of HGE is broad and that it is group of HGEs which is not homogenous. Results indicate that enterprises that were listed several times as HGEs are on average financially more successful as compared to companies that were among HGEs only once. Policy measures should be aimed at supporting HGEs tendencies to overcome their financial constraints and we also present some suggestions for policy makers.
High-growth enterprises, financial resources, financial performance, growth frequency
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