High-growth companies in Russia: The influence of affiliation on growth factors

High-growth companies, also known as gazelles, are an important source of economic growth. The development conditions of such companies differ by country. In case of Russia, it is enhanced by a special population structure: about 80% of Russian gazelles are affiliated with business groups. The authors set themselves the task of understanding how dependence or independence of gazelles is related to their chances of becoming fast-growing. The study shows that in Russia the standard factors that determine the likelihood of transition of independent firms to the rapid growth are statistically insignificant for affiliated firms, and even approximately do not explain the process of their transformation into high-growth companies. The authors offer a hypothesis that the most important factors of the transformation of affiliated firms into gazelles should be sought on the demand side (the possibility of growth on intracorporate orders; access to government orders; the availability of technologies that open the ways to unsaturated markets, etc.).The research was realized within the framework of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics (HSE)" Basic Research Program