Fast‐growing firms in a transitional and extreme environment: are they different?

Purpose – The paper is aims at investigating the contribution of fast‐growing firms to employment and the determinants of fast growth in Kosova, which can be considered an environment characterized by a transitional period and extreme conditions for entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach – The paper was based on the data collected from face‐to‐face interviews with 585 firm founders. The contribution of firms to job creation was computed by using descriptive statistics and then an ordinal logit regression model was employed to explore the determinants of fast growth. Findings – Results indicate that the contribution of fast‐growing firms to employment in this environment is lower than that in Western and developed countries. Findings also suggest that fast growth is positively affected by specific human capital, intentions to grow and the ability to deal with external barriers, while having a university degree is found to be negatively related to fast growth. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides a better understanding of the phenomenon of fast‐growing firms and has several theoretical and practical implications. Importantly, the research on fast‐growing firm is still not mature and the overall picture on fast‐growing firms have yet to be built. Originality/value – Most of the empirical evidence on fast‐growing firms comes from developed countries. This paper provides the empirical evidence from a transitional yet extreme context to further our knowledge on the topic of firm's fast growth.