Managing rapid change and rapid-growth in emerging industries

Increasingly, competitiveness is not an option for firms that seek to survive and grow in the interconnected world. Countries and industries are facing an unprecedented change in their business structures with new young and dynamic firms reshaping old business models as smaller firms are internationalising successfully. They are not only entering developed economies; but also in emerging economies due to globalisation, removal of barriers and open-trade policies. At home, they are becoming the drivers of jobs and wealth creation and innovation. We posit that emerging industries are also affected as rapidly-growing enterprises (RGEs) change and challenge industry's operating environments. In developed economies RGEs are dynamic, take advantage of newly-emerging or fragmented markets to deliver higher values in spite of their constrained resources. In the emerging economies, the dynamism and liberalisation of international markets are changing the relative values of resources and increasing the importance of becoming a learning organisation for which RGEs offer an excellent model. The paper presents a theoretically based framework to facilitate and guide the transition. A discussion in the conclusions explores implications and suggests public policy recommendations.