ABSTRACT
The main objective of this study is to identify and analyse the managerial factors most closely associated with successful, fast-growth small firms. Within the small-firm sector, any relationships between firm performance and the quality of the managerial inputs are likely to be clearer than for larger firms. At the risk of over-simplifying, large firms with their greater resource base, market power, ability to buy in additional managerial inputs or be bought out via takeovers or mergers, are less dependent upon the quality of their existing management teams than are small firms. The relationship between performance and management is, therefore, likely to be more nebulous and less direct in large firms. Nevertheless, though the performance of small firms will be more closely linked to the quality of its management, the relationship should not be presumed to be obvious and unproblematic. As we shall see, a number of complexities and difficulties emerge, particularly in relation to fast-growth firms, regarding the strength, direction and attribution of causality of these relationships.
