Tsvetana Stoyanova

Background. High-growth companies play a pivotal role in economic development by fostering innovation, productivity growth, and job creation. However, predicting the growth of such companies is difficult because it depends on a complex set of interrelated organisational, technological, and external factors. Recent advances in artificial intelligence are opening new opportunities to uncover complex growth patterns inaccessible to traditional analytical methods. Purpose. This study explores the potential of integrating statistical methods and artificial intelligence-based models for the analysis and forecasting of high-growth firms, and identifies complex interrelationships among organisational, technological, and environmental factors associated with accelerated firm development. Findings. Descriptive analysis shows that high-growth companies account for only 13.9% of the sample and exhibit significantly higher innovation activity (63.2% compared with 37.8%) and productivity (1.34 compared with 0.89) than non-high-growth companies. Predictive modelling results indicate that AI algorithms, particularly XGBoost, significantly outperform logistic regression (accuracy and ROC-AUC were 85% and 0.89 versus 73% and 0.74, respectively). At the same time, SHAP analysis confirms that innovation activity, company age, and productivity are the most significant factors in identifying high-growth companies. The results show that nonlinear interactions between multiple variables influence firm growth. Furthermore, explainable AI methods reveal that certain factors have a greater impact when analysed together with other organisational characteristics, highlighting the complexity and dynamic nature of high-growth processes. Implications. The study develops a comprehensive analytical framework that combines predictive performance with improved interpretability through explainable AI techniques. This approach can help identify firms with high growth potential earlier and contribute to more informed management and policy decisions. On the other hand, a combined approach that integrates statistical and AI methods can provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying firm growth in an innovation-intensive environment.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

Introduction. The fintech industry has focused on its potential, as it has rethought the possibilities and put the provision of financial services in a digitally developed world on a completely different level. The digital transformation of financial services, made possible by the rapid development of new technologies that ensure reliable transactions, has boosted the growth of FinTech companies. Aim and tasks. The study aims to comprehensively assess the determinants of the ability of FinTech companies to achieve market leadership, sustain innovation activity, and ensure regulatory compliance in the context of the financial sector’s digital transformation. Results. The expert survey developed a standardised codebook to evaluate 15 FinTech companies grouped into three clusters, resulting in a composite index and validating hypotheses about the factors determining growth. The regulatory environment (RE, 0.148), trust and security (TS, 0.139), and access to finance (AF, 0.117) form the core determinants, followed by technological infrastructure (TI, 0.111) and team quality (TQ, 0.108), and the remaining factors have lower relative weights (<0.09). The inter-firm differences are mainly explained by the performance on the regulatory-trust and financial-technology determinants, and the sensitivity analysis shows that a 1-point (0–5) increase in RE/TS/AF increases the index by approximately +0.030/+0.028/+0.023, which quantitatively confirms their leading roles. A comparative analysis of the cohorts showed that the leaders (C1–C7) demonstrated high results (≥4 points on 9–10 factors out of 10) and significant superiority in technology infrastructure (TI) and team quality (TQ). At the same time, the remaining groups of companies had more fragmented profiles with pronounced weaknesses. Conclusions. FinTech growth relies on a core of regulatory stability (RE), trust and security (TS), and access to finance (AF), complemented by technological infrastructure (TI) and team quality (TQ). Predictable regulation, access to capital, high-security standards, and targeted partnerships maximise the chance of “gazelle” or “unicorn” growth. A predictable regulatory environment and access to investment capital play a key role in accelerating the growth of the FinTech ecosystem. FinTech management should prioritise investments in technology infrastructure, developing highly skilled teams, creating targeted partnerships and ecosystems (PEs), and developing scalability and international expansion (SIEs) to transform high-growth companies into leaders.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

We consider an initial problem (IP) for a linear neutral system with distributed delays and derivatives in Caputo’s sense of incommensurate order, with different kinds of initial functions. In the case when the initial functions are with bounded variation, it is proven that this IP has a unique solution. The Krasnoselskii’s fixed point theorem, a very appropriate tool, is used to prove the existence of solutions in the case of the neutral systems. As a corollary of this result, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of a fundamental matrix for the homogeneous system. In the general case, without additional assumptions of boundedness type, it is established that the existence and uniqueness of a fundamental matrix lead existence and uniqueness of a resolvent kernel and vice versa. Furthermore, an explicit formula describing the relationship between the fundamental matrix and the resolvent kernel is proven in the general case too. On the base of the existence and uniqueness of a resolvent kernel, necessary and sufficient conditions for the stability of the zero solution of the homogeneous system are established. Finally, it is considered a well-known economics model to describe the dynamics of the wealth of nations and comment on the possibilities of application of the obtained results for the considered systems, which include as partial case the considered model.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies