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The aim of this study was to clarify growth management of service- and technology-based firms in sparsely populated areas (SPAs). This retrospective multiple case study reached this aim by investigating owner–managers’ experiences from the early growth process and by reflecting on these experiences through the meta-analytical management priority framework. The contextual management priorities were visited from the perspectives of service- and technology-based companies in SPAs. The owner–managers of service- and tech-based firms paid primary attention to three shared priorities: human resources, the development of services/products and organisational design, but in a different order and with context-specific characteristics. In service-based firms, owner–managers’ primary attention was on human resource management; meanwhile, the attention of owner–managers was primarily on the development and delivery of products/technology.