EMPLOYMENT AND VALUE-ADDED CONTRIBUTION OF SLOVENIAN HIGH-GROWTH COMPANIES (GAZELLES)

High-growth companies, gazelles, are responsible for stimulating economic growth and development through extreme growth rates (employment, income, assets, value-added etc.). Consequently, exploring highgrowth companies may offer valuable insights into promoting dynamic entrepreneurship in contemporary society. In this paper, we are examining high-growth companies and their socio-economic contribution through a company’s size, because the size dimension is an important characteristic affecting the level of employment and making important contributions to employment growth. Based on the national ranking of the 500 fastest-growing companies, based on the income statement data (sales growth in the 5-year period), we compare the gazelles with the average of all Slovenian companies. The findings provide evidence of the gazelles’ considerable contribution to employment and the creation of an added (new) value. Company growth can also be measured on the basis of other parameters and therefore, in one part of our analysis, we limit the use of the measures to the relative employment growth – the DaBeg index. The results have shown that the growth patterns among the companies are very heterogeneous and that innovative fast-growing companies make a valuable socio-economic contribution. As such, gazelles require effective supportive measures of government policies, aimed at encouraging and promoting growth-oriented entrepreneurship.