What is ‘Gazelle Company’
A high-growth company that is increasing its revenues by at least 20% annually for four years or more, starting from a revenue base of at least $1 million. This growth pace means that the company has effectively doubled its revenues over a four-year period. As gazelle companies are characterized by their rapid growth pace, rather than their absolute size, they can range in size from small companies to very large enterprises.
Explaining ‘Gazelle Company’
David Birch’s identification of gazelle companies followed from his 1979 report titled “The Job Generation Process,” wherein he identified small companies as the biggest creators of new jobs in the economy. Birch estimated that gazelles accounted for only 4% of all U.S. companies, but accounted for 70% of all new jobs. Birch noted that the growth pace of gazelle companies far outpaced that of the Fortune 500 “elephants” and Main Street “mice.”
Further Reading
- The Information Problem on the way to Becoming a" Gazelle" – search.proquest.com [PDF]
- Gazelle companies: growth drivers and an evolution analysis – ideas.repec.org [PDF]
- What can Latin‐American entrepreneurs learn from Catalan gazelles? – www.emerald.com [PDF]
- Higher growth through the Blue Ocean Strategy: Implications for economic policy – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- A theory of gazelle growth: Competition, venture capital finance and policy – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
- Secrets of gazelles: The differences between high-growth and low-growth business owned by African American entrepreneurs – journals.sagepub.com [PDF]
- Innovation activities of gazelles in business services as a factor of sustainable growth in the Slovak Republic – hal.archives-ouvertes.fr [PDF]
