Orthodox Gazelles Performance and Advantages During the Pandemic (Russian Case)

High-growth firms (gazelles) are significant players for post-crisis recovery through the ability to generate employment as well as interest in innovations and R&D. The aim of the study is to identify differences in performance of orthodox and other types of high-growth firms before the pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic crisis (2020–2021). Open source information, company websites and government procurement are the base for gazelles’ typology. The first HGF type is orthodox firm with classical, organic growth. Unorthodox gazelles may be affiliated with big corporations (1), state or government (2), VIP (oligarchs, politicians, persons with administrative resources) (3). The sample includes 512 Russian high-growth firms with revenue over 2 billion rubles in 2019 (large-sized enterprises). We identify HGF using 2016–2019 data (three year of high growth) and then compare 2019, 2020 and 2021 performance results. Hypotheses are tested using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test. The hypothesis testing results significant differences in efficiency between orthodox and unorthodox HGFs in 2020–2021 (orthodox HGF are better in turnover-to-assets ratio). Also the research results no significant differences in revenue, employment growth, profit and equity-to debt ratio between orthodox and unorthodox gazelles in 2020 and 2021. We conclude that orthodox high-growth firms lack external sources for growth but they are able to perform at the same level as the gazelles with external support during the COVID-19 pandemic.