Scaling: Organizing and growth in entrepreneurial ventures

DeSantola, A and R Gulati (2017). Scaling: Organizing and growth in entrepreneurial ventures, Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), 640-668.

Entrepreneurial ventures face unique challenges related to growth, particularly in managing their internal organizations. Progress on understanding these dynamics has been constrained by fragmentation within relevant management research. In this paper, we clarify and describe two narratives that have emerged within past and current research on growth and the internal organization.

The first narrative draws attention to the surprising endurance of organizational features during growth; the second, their dramatic change. We juxtapose the two narratives to reveal ongoing gaps in the study of how growth can effect change along three dimensions: organizational design, team composition, and organizational culture. We conclude with recommendations on how future research can be enriched through a systematic examination of how entrepreneurial ventures navigate the organizational dilemmas growth presents.