Growing Thanks to Whom? The Impact of Staff on Demand on Organizational Growth Dynamics: Evidence from Sweden.

Young fast-growing companies operating in the digital economy represent a tendency which has, so far, been little explored by academic literature that has, until now, not been able to form a systematic approach to this topic. Among the many factors that can help to explain their rapid evolutionary dynamics, some researchers (Ismail, 2013; Burke, 2015) underline the so-called use of Staff on Demand, that is to say freelance workers. In other words, freelance personnel. One usually thinks that not having stable relationships with the companies for which they work, contractors can help to streamline organizational processes and therefore favour faster growth. By means of a multiple case study, this paper will show that, contrary to belief, Staff on Demand represents an important but not crucial presence for fast-growing companies. The case study was carried out on a number of recently formed Swedish companies. The collection of data and the interviews with their founders, CEOs and HR Officers, clearly show that the most important role is still played by full time employees and that the presence of Staff on Demand does not affect in any substantial way the growth of a company or of Human Resource management.