Analýza charakteristik nejrychleji rostoucích firem podle žebříčku FT1000

This Master´s thesis studies European fast-growing companies, from the perspective of the FT 1000: Europe´s Fastest Growing Companies ranking, which is annually published by The Financial Times. The thesis aims to identify the main characteristics of fastest-growing companies in Europe that were included in the ranking during 2017-2019 and to find out how the selected characteristics influence their profits. Five hypotheses were gradually tested using parametric (t-test, multiple linear regression analysis) and non-parametric statistical methods (binomial test). The analysis of 2,524 companies has shown that high diversity - in age, industry and size, characterise European gazelles. It also came out that the profit of fast-growing European companies in the low-tech sector is higher by 2,187 mil EUR on average when compared with profits of gazelles operating in the high-tech sector. The assumption, that more gazelles in one country implies achieving higher profits for all gazelles in that country, has not been established on the basis of the available data. A large proportion of low-tech companies, elder once or those with a high dispersion of the number of jobs created, indicates heterogeneity of Europe's high-growth enterprises, which cannot be neglected under any circumstances.