Eight Propositions About Scale-ups

This chapter pushes further in our investigation of the nature of scale-ups by introducing the following eight propositions about scale-ups: (1) a scale up is a concept born of practitioners, not academics; (2) scale-ups are not just in the IT sector, but may be enabled by IT; (3) a scale-up is a qualitative concept from a ‘stages-of-growth’ model; (4) scaling up involves structural transformation; (5) a scale-up does not exist anywhere in a pure form; (6) scale-ups differ by degree, not by kind; (7) many scale-ups are exceptions; and (8) there may never be a standardized empirical definition of scale-up. Each of these eight propositions was either not clear, or was misunderstood, in some previous work.