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This chapter critically discusses the many positive aspects that are ascribed to gazelle firms by exploring the external effects and dark sides of high firm growth. On the background of the more general debate on purpose versus profit as a firm’s mission, the chapter theoretically elaborates on the dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative growth of gazelles. This is followed by a case-based illustration and exploration as to how quantitative and qualitative growth interrelates in gazelles and what are impediments for high growth that is purpose driven. The chapter closes with a discussion of the Janus-faced nature of gazelles and how their corporate citizenship can be enhanced.

The authors analyze the expansion of Big Data and artificial intelligence technologies from the perspective of economic theory. The authors argue that these technologies can be viewed from three perspectives: (1) as an intangible asset; (2) as a search and matching technology; and (3) as a forecasting technology. These points of view shed light on how new technologies are likely to affect matching between firms and consumers, productivity growth, price discrimination, competition, inequality among firms, and inequality among workers.

The chapter provides an integrated analytical account of the contributions of the volume. Next to the results from a comprehensive literature review on gazelle growth factors, two further content blocks of the volume are summarized, one on gazelles in Germany and one on specific under-researched topics, that is, gazelles’ internationalization and gazelles’ corporate citizenship. The chapter highlights main findings and avenues for further research, including a short discussion on the use of the term “gazelle”.

Wages have been spreading out across workers over time – or in other words, the 90th/50th wage ratio has risen over time. A key question is, has the productivity distribution also spread out across worker skill levels over time? Using our calculations of productivity by skill level for the United States, we show that the distributions of both wages and productivity have spread out over time, as the right tail lengthens for both. We add Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, showing that the wage–productivity correlation exists, such that gains in aggregate productivity, or GDP per person, have resulted in higher wages for workers at the top and bottom of the wage distribution. However, across countries, those workers in the upper-income ranks have seen their wages rise the most over time. The most likely international factor explaining these wage increases is the skill-biased technological change of the digital revolution. The new artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that has just begun seems to be having similar skill-biased effects on wages. But this current AI, called “supervised learning,” is relatively similar to past technological change. The AI of the distant future will be “unsupervised learning,” and it could eventually have an effect on the jobs of the most highly skilled.

In this chapter we examine the process by which new firms become central actors within their industry networks. We focus, in particular, on how relatively new venture capital (VC) firms become more central within investment syndication networks. We present a model that captures the relationships among (1) the social capital and status of the new VC firm's founders, (2) the VC firm's resource endowments, (3) the VC firm's ability to forge relationships with other prestigious and central venture capital firms, (4) the visibility-enhancing performance of portfolio firms, and (5) the urgency and effort exhibited by the new VC as it pursues these opportunities. These factors combine to shape a new VC's journey from the periphery to the center of its industry network. To illustrate these processes, we develop in-depth case studies of Benchmark Capital and August Capital, two VC firms founded in 1995. We then elaborate upon the enacted nature of resource and opportunity constraints and conclude with a discussion of how new firms create their own self-fulfilling prophecies.

This chapter introduces the readers to the theme of the book. The chapter starts by outlining the socio-economic importance of gazelles and by discussing definitional challenges of what gazelles or high-growth firms are. The chapter then points to the academic relevance and to unresolved issues in international gazelle research. The chapter closes with an outline of the three blocks and eight chapters of the book.

The importance of leadership in the success of startups is widely recognized. Our study focuses on high-growth startups, which are venture capital (VC)-financed. So far, there is insufficient understanding, which leadership style founders and leaders of these startups deploy. Based on a Grounded Theory approach we derive a leadership framework from interviews with founder CEOs in Germany’s major startup city, Berlin. Our findings suggest that founder CEOs in high-growth, VC-funded startups heavily emphasize employee motivation, personnel development, performance orientation, and growth achievement in their leadership behavior. While our findings relate to a very specific and extreme type of firms, we propose that they are relevant for all kinds of companies as a pattern of a somewhat idealized leadership environment in relentless pursuit of innovation and growth.