Mid-size firm growth: The process and empirical examination of key drivers

Abstract

The growth of the mid-sized enterprise arguably facilitates the resilience and stability needed for a thriving economy, even though such firms are comparatively overlooked or underrepresented in the scholarly literature. Further, the process of how mid-sized firms grow is seemingly unexplained. We address this gap in the literature through qualitative research and unveil a growth process model for mid-sized enterprise, illuminating the interaction of relationship and resource variables that are orchestrated by managers to achieve growth. Results from our research capture formative interactions and how they are developed, exploitative strategies coupled with galvanised relationships and integrated relationship and resource complexity as drivers to state-dependent growth. We unpack which variables foster growth as well as how, where and when they do so and contribute to literature with finer-grained description and prescription for growth objectives in mid-sized firms.