High Growth Firms and their Impact on Employment in Iran

Despite the fact that high growth firms comprise a low percentage of all the firms globally, experimental studies in business and entrepreneurship designate a considerable share of net new jobs for them, deeming them as initiatives of boosting productivity, innovation and penetrating global markets. However, no comprehensive study has yet been conducted on Iranian high growth firms and their role on the nation’s economy. Hence, the present study, using all Iranian Social Security Organization data during two four-year-period, investigates the jobs created by high growth firms in private sectors and cooperative firms. While highlighting the importance of the subject, the study paints a big picture of such firms and delivers a context for deeper studies and comprehension of success and demise of them. As high grows firms encompass 0.53 percent of businesses in Iran, they constitute approximately 38 percent of all the newly created jobs that are distributed unequally across the country. The unfair geographical distribution of such firms convey lack of equal access to entrepreneurial opportunities in the country and calls for implementing enlightening policies and configuration of transparency and fair access to opportunities on a nation-wide scale.