A quantitative analysis of the characteristics of rapid‐growth firms and their entrepreneurs in China

Purpose – This study aims to compare rapid‐growth companies with slow‐growth ones in order to provide fresh insights into the attributes of Chinese rapid‐growth companies through an integrated research framework, which was adapted from the framework proposed by Wiklund and by Barringer. Design/methodology/approach – To obtain data for analysis, the research selected the top 30 rapid‐growth firms and the bottom 30 slow‐growth firms from a data bank which contains complete financial data of 533 firms from 2001 to 2003. All data concerning rapid‐growth were coded either one or zero, and were analyzed by Fisher's Exact Test to find out the frequency of important growth variables. Findings – It is found that the major differences between rapid‐growth and slow‐growth firms lie in different favorite firm resources and capacities, task environment, and entrepreneurial strategies. They can create greater value for success with certain entrepreneurs, and might spur those entrepreneurs to push their firms onto a rapid growth road. In addition, the variable of creating unique value emerges as a strong predictor of rapid growth. Entrepreneur orientation strategy is not found to be significantly facilitating rapid growth. This illustrates that all growth companies value highly entrepreneurship‐oriented strategy. Practical implications – These research findings confirm that growth is not a random event and that entrepreneurs are not necessarily natural. These research findings will promote entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship in China. Originality/value – There are two originalities in this research. First, the authors developed a new integrated framework based on previous research achievements. Second, it is the first empirical study concerning company growth variables in China.