The Organizational Life Cycle Stages and Effectiveness : A Study of Swedish Gazelle Companies

• Main Authors: Choi, Ga Eun, Nordström, Christoffer, Llorach, Carlos
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi 2012
• Subjects: The life cycle theory; organizational effectiveness; gazelles; SMEs; the organizational structure; firm growth; Sweden
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-20116

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the life cycle stages of the chosen gazelles in Sweden and identify their effectiveness related to the stages. Furthermore, we study whether the given characteristic of the gazelle companies correspond to the suggested characteristics of the given theoretical framework. Gazelles, as the outstanding performers of both financial profits and job creators of our society, they are always struggling to sustain growth and satisfy market needs in order to maintain their prestigious status. Therefore, it is critical for them to access their abilities as well as constraints of the current organizational structures and we seek the solutions to these problems through the organizational life cycle theory perspective. Our study focuses on the Dagens Industri’s gazelle award winners that are carefully evaluated by the strict criteria it provides. Also, we revisit the various previous studies in the field of the organizational life cycle and effectiveness in order to provide the foundation for our analysis. In order to serve our purpose, we study 26 gazelles from Sweden in dept by reviewing their annual reports and official websites and provide the reader with quantities data research that are self-administrated concerning the different attributes of the life cycle stages and effectiveness. In conclusion, we find that the majority of the Swedish gazelle companies we have studied correspond to the second stage of the life cycle model which focuses on human relations model as an effectiveness area. However, these firms demonstrate unique effectiveness that genuine SMEs do not have, such as high focus on R&D and harmony between flexibility and control in their organizational structure.