Scaling: Fundamental Trade-offs, Human Capital Dynamics and Performance Outcomes

Through three mutually reinforcing research lines and a total of eight interrelated studies, this project aims to generate essential knowledge and insights to help address the EU knowledge and execution gap on scale-ups and scaling. Our first research line aims to investigate some of the most fundamental, yet to date largely unexamined and poorly understood, trade-offs in scaling. Through three interrelated studies, this research line aims to generate foundational understanding of scaling as a complex adaptive process that involves the management of critical trade-offs related to the need to balance fast-paced growth with maintaining control over key organizational processes/standards, standardization with local adaptation, investing in standardized open-source tools to reduce the time it takes a venture to get ready to scale with protecting its ability to differentiate and scale sustainably and profitably.

Our second research line aims to investigate critical human capital dynamics in rapidly growing entrepreneurial ventures, in particular how scaling influences compensation, work structures, and employee well-being; how employers address collective employee turnover during scaling, particularly through human capital investments; as well as what triggers loneliness or, conversely, improves well-being among founders during scaling. By examining these areas through three interrelated studies, the research line contributes to a comprehensive understanding of scaling as a human-centric process, emphasizing the need to balance rapid organizational growth and sustainable people practices for both the workforce and leadership.

Our third research line aims to develop comprehensive frameworks for measuring and understanding scaling progress and performance, specifically how to systematically measure scaling efficiency (for both demand-side and supply-side scaling) as well as how different patterns of technical debt accumulation during rapid scaling affect organizational innovation capabilities and performance outcomes. Through two interrelated studies, this research line seeks to establish robust quantitative metrics for evaluating scaling potential and progress, while also illuminating the critical role of technical infrastructure decisions in scaling outcomes.

The theory, evidence, and insights generated by our three research lines and a total of eight interrelated studies will inform and provide actionable advice to founders, managers, investors, stakeholders, policymakers, and scholars, thus furthering understanding of the fundamental trade-offs in scaling, the human capital dynamics that enhances the resilience of high-growth entrepreneurial ventures and ecosystems, as well as the metrics and tools that help assess and predict scaling success.