A longitudinal comparison of the growth factors of Slovenian fast growing enterprises

Abstract

The article presents the main features of Slovenia's fastest growing companies and compares them with "gazelles" in the EU. The longitudinal survey presented connects with three other studies applying the same research method, namely studies employing the same questionnaire on growth factors that affect growing companies through to the criteria by which they were selected as growing businesses for the survey. The author notes that the growth factors which have an impact on Slovenian businesses and gazelles in the EU mostly do not show any significant differences, and that these differences also did not change significantly over a 15-year period. This hypothesis is verified by both statistical methods and the data mining method called machine learning from examples. UDC: JEL classification: 1. INTRODUCTION Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises constitute the "heart" of the Slovenian economy. Slovenia has over 117.000 micro enterprises with less than EUR 2 million in sales revenue (data for 2008) almost 96 % of all economic entities in Republic Slovenia. Small, medium and large firms are only 4976, or 3.8%, while large companies with over 250 employees are just 774 (AJPES, 2009). This means that Slovenia is a country where mainly micro and small enterprises operate. Even in the current EU economy, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises represent 99.8% of all economic entities, employing 67.1% of the workforce; however, they generate 57.6% of total value added in the EU and, most importantly, represent the most dynamic part of the economy because in the past five years, according to the Commission, they have created over 80% of all new jobs (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu). In Slovenia and the EU, only some (about 5%) of the companies that grow at an above-average rate employ and generate the largest part of growth of value added and national economic growth. Five thousand fast-growing, small companies in Slovenia