Abstract

Background - Not all companies choose or are able to grow, especially not in an unstable economic climate. However, fast growing organizations (gazelles) have managed to grow with a significant pace. As researchers claim control to be one factor in developing an organization, this lead the authors to question whether these gazelle organizations perceive control systems to contribute to their rapid growth.

Purpose - The authors wish to investigate whether strategic planning, enterprise resource planning and management system, as three different components of control, are present in gazelle organizations, and if they are perceived as contributors to growth.

Method - The authors use a quantitative research approach and used a survey in order to capture the wider perspective of control. The chosen population is Swedish medium sized gazelle organizations. In order to analyze the findings, modified 6-point Likert-scale statements are included in the survey, where the authors interpret whether the respondents agree or disagree to the chosen statements, which are incorporated through the literature review. In addition to this, ANOVA tests are included to establish if there are significant differences among users and nonusers of the different control systems.

Conclusion - The conclusions drawn from this study is that the usage of strategic planning and an enterprise resource planning system is common among the participating organizations. However, the majority do not use a management system. Despite the level of usage of the three different control systems, they are all perceived as beneficial for the organizations, and the respondents do believe that the systems contribute to their growth. In addition, there is no significant proof that there is a relationship between growth and using the control systems, when comparing the percentage increase in growth with using the different control systems.