Growth and innovation during economic shocks: A case study for characterising growing small firms

Why do some firms successfully grow while others are severely affected by economic shocks? Does innovation play any role in this? By adopting a multi-theoretical approach, this study explores the characteristics of firms that grew during the Great Recession (2008–2009). The data were collected from 12 small firms located in Finland, Ireland and the UK. Furthermore, this study elaborates the entrepreneurship and management literature by characterising the firms that thrived during the recession. The findings reveal the uniform characteristics of four grower types: gazelles, high relative growers, high absolute growers and high growers of both. It can be concluded that there are more homogeneous characteristics within the grower profiles than across the profiles, suggesting that firms growing during the Great Recession comprise an internally heterogeneous group of businesses. We found that innovation is the only common characteristic of firms that grew during these economic shocks.