Service Sector High-Growth Firms in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Russian Case

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have a direct and delayed impact. High-growth firms are well-known growth drivers for national economy. The aim of the study is to track the performance differences of normal and high-growth firms in most affected by COVID-19 pandemic industries. The research question is based on assumption of higher service high-growth firms’ performance comparing with normal service firms in most affecting COVID-19 pandemic. Firms performance is measured with three aspects and three indicators such as ability to grow (revenue growth rate), profitability (return on sales), and solvency (equity-to-assets rate). The paper is based on 13,705 Russian firm official statistics (including 392 gazelles). The period of observation is from 2016 to 2019 for gazelles’ identification. Firm performance is evaluated with 2020 and 2021 data. The hypotheses are tested using a one-way ANOVA. High-growth firms demonstrate better ability to grow, and lower solvency than normal firms in 2020 and 2021. The gazelles’ profitability is not significantly differ the normal firm rates (higher in 2020 and lower in 2021). Statistically significant differences in the behavior of HGF and normal firms were confirmed for all samples, as well as for retail and catering industries. Retail and domestic services, conference and exhibition industry have better coped with pandemic challenges. The prospects for the future researches are comparative cross-industry analyses in 2020 and 2021.