Identifying and Understanding High Growth Firms in the Pakistani Textile and Apparel Sectors

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the distinguishing features of fast growing firms in the Pakistani textile and apparel sectors. We find that the distribution of firm growth- both in terms of employment and sales - is very heavily skewed toward the right-tail, confirming earlier findings that firm growth is generated by a very small number of firms. We found that small and young companies grow faster and generate higher employment. We also used various indicators of a firm’s innovation behavior and found that more innovative firms grow faster. Our results suggest that it is not the possession of individual attributes, but rather a combination of particular firm attributes that defines fast growing firms. Specifically, we found that the blend of being small, young and innovative explains the fast growth in firms. on overall these companies also create more jobs.