Can the "Gazelles Plan" support gazelles growth? —Evidence from the Beijing Zhongguancun in China

In order to solve the problem of “Financing difficulty” commonly faced by small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) in China, the Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park(ZSP) Management Committee has formulated the “Gazelles Plan” to support strong innovated, rapid growing firms with good development prospects in strategic emerging industries. However, few studies have examined the impact mechanism of the “Gazelles Plan” on firm growth at the micro-enterprise level. This paper aims to take the implementation of the Beijing Zhongguancun of the “Gazelles Plan” as a quasi-natural experiment, and integrates the 2006-2008 Gazelle Firm List issued by Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park Management Committee and Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database during period 2004-2008, and scientifically evaluates the net effect of the “Gazelles Plan” and the mechanism of its policy tools by using the PSM-DID method. We find that the implementation of the “Gazelles Plan” has indeed promoted the rapid growth of firms, indicating that scientific support policies for high-growth firms play an important role in promoting firm growth. The mechanism test of the policy tools shows that “Bank credit” and “Commercial credit”, as two important policy tools of the “Gazelles Plan”, have different effects on firm growth. Bank credit significantly promotes firm growth, while the effect of commercial credit on the rapid growth of firms has not yet emerged. Our findings provide theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for government departments to formulate policies to foster gazelles growth.