1042-2587-97-222$1.50 Copyright 1998 by Baylor University The Role of Socially Constructed Temporal Perspectives in the Emergence of Rapid-Growth !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Firms Eileen Fischer A. Rebecca Reuber Moez Hababou William Johnson Steven Lee This study examined how owners and top management team members in firms that are grow- ing very rapidly socially construct time so as to facilitate rapid growth. A blend of interview and text-based qualitative methods was used to study some firms that have achieved rapid growth and some that have yet to do so. Analysis led to the Identification of several thematic patterns regarding the enactment of time. The first was simultaneity: informants appeared to sustain a simultaneous focus on the events actually occurring in the present and the outcomes desired in the future, so that strategies to deal with the present are emergent but the goals and time- frames for obtaining them remain relatively fixed. The second was selectivity: rather than pas- sively accepting the time-frames of key customers or employees, these firms sought out cus- tomers and staff who shared a pace and movability of enacted time in congruence with the firms' goals. The third theme was shaping: top managers in rapid-growth firms adopted or developed systems and procedures that allow them to shape the enactment of time through- out their organizations. The paper concludes with some propositions about the nature of enacted time in firms that are more versus less successful in growing rapidly. How do firms that may not have existed six months ago, or that may have existed for 10years and grown only slightly in that time, suddenly emerge as "rapid-growth firms"? Rapid growth (defined here as having a minimum average growthin salesof over 20%per annum for a five-year period), is one fascinating type of the emergence phenomenon (Gartner, Bird, & Starr, 1992) and emergence has been characterized as definitional to entrepreneurship (Katz & Gartner, 1988). The fact that firms that growat ratesin excessof 20% per year are believed to account for the major- ity of job creation in the U.S. economy (Birch, 1997) makes understanding such firms of both the- oretical and practical importance. Yet little is known about whatever unique characteristics and processes these rapid-growth firms may possess. This paper explores the enactment of time by top management team members in some firms that have sustained rapid growth and in some that have failed to do so. Timeenactment by top management was chosen as a focal phenomenon since one of the most fascinating characteristics of rapid-growth firms is the accelerated pace at which theyevolverelative to other firms that seem comparable, beforetheonsetof growth, with regard to marketcharacteristics and opportunities. It seems plausible that the management teams in firms that grow rapidly shape- that is, socially construct - perceptions of time shared by firm members in order to facilitate this high-velocity growth. This paperexplores the notion that time is socially constructed within rapid-growth orga- Winter, 1997 13