Organisational blueprints for growth in service firms

Abstract

Start-ups and Smaller and Medium sized Enterprises are vital for national economies. The vast
majority of these enterprises can be found in services industries. One of the parameters to measure
performance of a company is growth. Only a very small percentage of these enterprises find ways to sustainable
growth. Little is known on models for making a service firm grow. Based on our extensive literature study and
in-depth analyses of 7 cases in the Dutch service industry we came to 5 distinct models or blueprints for growth
and a framework on how to decide which model is best suited for the specific situation of a specific firm. Yet
many research has to be done to give the final answer to the main question of our study “What kind of
organisational blueprint is best suited for growing your company successfully?”