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The purpose of this paper is to examine business growth and explore the “growth mode” among 24 women entrepreneurs participating in a Nordic research, development and networking programme.

A longitudinal design made it possible to follow entrepreneurial growth as an unfolding and emerging research process with a methodology inductive in nature and driven by empirical findings. The analysis is structured following established procedures for inductive, theory-building research, using guidelines for constant comparison techniques and working recursively between the data and the emerging theory.

Two processes were found important to understand the women entrepreneurs’ growth mode. The first is interpreted as intentionally driven and relates to the women’s achievement of expanding their knowledge reservoir; the other is non-intentionally driven and a result of uncontrolled network responses. The latter unfolded as a movement towards a preferable macro-actor status for some of the entrepreneurs.

The study calls attention to relevant knowledge preferable to entrepreneurs who face challenges when trying to grow their businesses. The political implications of this study relate to the importance of awareness among governmental organizations and municipal business advisers regarding the effects of entrepreneurial networking.

This study provides an empirically rigorous insight into the processes of entrepreneurial growth. The findings led the authors to develop a conceptual model for business growth, which contributes to the recent stream of literature on how new businesses are growing.

This paper aims to model and empirically test the determinants of small accommodation business (SAB) size.

This study distinguishes among three aspects of SAB size (accommodation scale, investment and employment) and between two modes of growth (managerial and entrepreneurial growth). A conceptual framework was developed based on business growth theory, whereby three econometric models were constructed and estimated to predict size variations. Data were collected through a survey on 200 SABs in North Zhejiang Province of China. Effects of the determinants were contrasted between different size indicators.

The SAB size can be affected by personal factors (employed working experience, education level, industry-specific know-how), interpersonal factor (relative ties to other SABs) and environmental factor (association support). The interpersonal and environmental factors tend to contribute to managerial growth, while the personal factors are usually conducive to entrepreneurial growth.

This study addresses the questions of “why some SABs grow larger in size than others” and “why different SABs grow in different ways”. But more contexts and business types should be examined so as to ensure generalizability through future studies.

The research findings can provide guidelines for local tourism administration to encourage or regulate SAB development.

This study is among the first endeavors to examine the multidimensionality and determinants of business size in tourism and hospitality; it contributes to literature by expanding tourism entrepreneurship research into a/the “growth paradigm”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of Muslim society marriages – forced, arranged or marriages of choice/love, on women entrepreneurial intentions (EI), with reference to Ajzen’s (2002) theory of planned behaviour. It is postulated that marriage type has a significant influence on women household dynamics towards EI and business growth.

A qualitative methodology was used and a total of 20 semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with Muslim married women entrepreneurs operating home-based and market-based small businesses.

The findings show that all these three types of married women entrepreneurs are active in the entrepreneurial process. However, the authors found different paradoxes in their EI and desire for business growth based on their marriage choices or marriage-related constraints that may have been imposed on them.

Qualitative research on a small sample size certainly presents a limitation on the generalizability of this work, because it is difficult to capture data regarding this sensitive issue. Future research could also be carried out in other cultural and religious traditions.

The paper provides good insights to understand the entrepreneurial journey of Muslim women entrepreneurs in the conservative society based on their marriages options.

The contribution of this research is twofold. First, the paper offers a theoretical perspective related to female EI and business growth based on religious marriages. Second, it applies Ajzen’s (2002) planned behaviour theory to establish how marriage constraints may influence women EI in the Muslim society.

This paper aims to explore how typical personal, interpersonal and environmental factors influence entrepreneurs' growth aspirations by investigating the impact mechanism of entrepreneurial competency and guanxi on the growth aspirations of small tourism entrepreneurs in a dynamic environment.

Applying social cognitive theory (SCT) and business growth theory (BGT), this research uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the questionnaire survey data of 371 small tourism business owners/owner-managers to test the relationship between entrepreneurial competency, guanxi and growth aspirations, with self-efficacy as a mediator and environment dynamism as a moderator.

The findings indicate that entrepreneurial competency is a more direct and significant factor than guanxi in facilitating the entrepreneurial growth aspirations in small tourism enterprises (STEs). Entrepreneurial competency and guanxi can both enhance entrepreneurs' self-efficacy, which then affects their aspirations to grow their business. Self-efficacy is a critical predictor of entrepreneurs' growth aspirations in STEs, although its effect is weakened by environmental dynamism.

This study expands the integrated application of SCT and BGT in tourism context, providing a more comprehensive and nuanced interpretation of the growth aspirations of entrepreneurs in STEs. It sheds more light on the effect of different entrepreneurial capital on growth aspirations and provides managerial implications accordingly.

The purposes of the paper are to review the stream of studies that link financial inclusion to small enterprise growth in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) to identify the research gaps they provide and to prepare an agenda for future research in the field.

The study employs systematic literature search method to identify relevant literature from journals. The study then adopts a narrative approach for the review, highlighting the findings from the prior studies and gaps requiring research attention.

The discussions reveal that there is a need for future studies that can unpack small enterprise growth determinants, identify growth-enabling entrepreneurial characteristics and examine the contextual variabilities that shape their effectiveness.

There is currently no comprehensive/integrated review exploring the link between financial inclusion and small enterprise growth in SSA. The review, therefore, provides insights that contribute to the development of this stream of research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate women-owned businesses from a life cycle perspective and with a qualitative growth approach. Building on previous research that has identified qualitative growth platforms, this paper takes into account the time aspect and investigates perceived barriers and support needs inside different qualitative growth platforms.

The study took place in Sweden and is based on 191 women entrepreneurs in a first survey and 101 women entrepreneurs in a follow-up questionnaire three years later. To answer the research questions, descriptive frequency analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques have been used.

The motivation of growth changes throughout the life cycle, and women entrepreneurs move between different qualitative growth platforms when required building blocks of previous platforms have been established and secured. In this transfer of growth ambition, a significant correlation between business age and intrinsic growth aspiration was identified. Initially, growth is extrinsically motivated and later on in the life cycle, it is intrinsically motivated. In the late life cycle, the motivation is extrinsically motivated again. The results discern barriers to growth that hinder movement from extrinsic to intrinsic business platforms, and the author argues that the transfer of growth ambition from one growing platform to another requires different types of advice and support from the surrounding community.

By broadening the view of growth to include both a quantitative and qualitative approach, it is possible to identify a widespread growth ambition in women-owned businesses which experience various barriers and supportive needs. Business programs that encourage exchange of experience among entrepreneurs in various growth platforms might be a way to overcome the perceived barriers. As women’s businesses only receive a low proportion of the government funding, they are prevented from developing their growth ambitions. To ensure that all forms of growth are stimulated, different measures are required depending on which stage in their life cycle the women-owned businesses belong to.

By considering business growth from a qualitative perspective, barriers and needs that the traditional approach may overlook can be highlighted. For example, growth aspiration in terms of more employees will not be considered until the previously, qualitative growth platforms are established and secured. The support system, however, is designed to only favor growth in terms of employment, which results in difficulties to qualify for financial support.

Previous studies primarily focus on how to achieve better performance in the international markets, but few centers on whether internationalization is a promising strategy for new ventures’ growth and development. Based on two pioneering frameworks Conservative, Predictable, and Pacemaker (CPP) model and the 7-P model, this paper fills this gap by analyzing how exporting exert heterogeneous effects on two types of growth, sales growth and employment growth. Accordingly, this paper aims to favor market-oriented new ventures to make a strategy on expanding international markets.

This study is based on firm-level data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database. The year 2005 was used as the shock year. By conducting the propensity score matching method, 793 couples of matched new ventures were collected with sales growth and 686 couples with employment growth. The difference-in-differences method was applied to analyze the various influences that exporting has on new ventures’ sales growth and employment growth.

The main finding of this paper is that new ventures that exported can achieve better sales growth than their counterparts that only operated domestically, whereas new ventures that remain in the domestic market have no difference in employment growth from those that exported.

This study shows that exporting is especially beneficial for market-seeking new ventures. Because the study is based on Chinese data, scholars of international business can conduct further research on other countries with different economic structures.

Theoretically, this paper contributes to both international business theory and entrepreneurship theory by combining the CPP model and the 7-P model. Practically, this paper shows that exports mainly benefit the sales growth of new ventures. This suggests that business practitioners should consider their growth goals before they choose to enter the global market.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how operations decision-making may keep the growing firms within the boundaries of corporate and societal sustainability.

The authors classify operations decisions during growth periods according to the three dimensions of the triple bottom line (economic, social and environmental). By means of a longitudinal case study of a family-owned wood construction firm that is in a process of intense growth, the authors identify, visually represent and analyse the complex sequences of selected managerial operations decisions.

The empirical data suggest that operations decisions made by managers during growth periods follow specific patterns. From the analysis, the authors derive various research propositions that investigate how a well-understood and therefore efficient and effective decision-making process can facilitate sustainable business growth.

The findings offer opportunities for future studies to zoom in on specific parts of the decision-making process during growth periods. Moreover, given the exploratory nature of this study, future research should test hypotheses derived from the research propositions.

This study investigates operations decision-making during growth, which is crucial for guiding companies through this complex transition phase.

This conceptual and empirical analysis explores new theory and contributes to the vastly under-researched subject of sustainable business growth.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of education and training and management supervision on the development of entrepreneurship attitude and growth of small and micro enterprises (SMEs) developed by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Pekanbaru City.

This research focuses on a discussion of the effects of education and training management oversight of entrepreneurial attitudes and business growth from the distribution of PKBL funds as one attitude of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the development of small and micro entrepreneurs in Riau Province by selecting three SOEs companies that distribute CSR funding program in Pekanbaru City, namely, PT. Jasa Raharja, PT. Angkasa Pura and PT. Pegadaian Riau region, whereas the scope of this study includes a review of material on the beneficiary of PKBL from 2016 to 2017.

Education and training conducted by SOEs toward micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) entrepreneurs do not give a positive contribution to the business growth. Management supervision that has been conducted so far has not contributed to the growth of MSMEs business. The entrepreneurship attitude of MSMEs entrepreneurs determines the success of MSMEs. Attitude not only directly contributes to the growth of business but also indirectly mediates education and training in making a positive contribution to the development and growth of the business. Attitude also mediates the management supervision in splitting the growth of MSMEs business.

No previous study has comprehensively studied the education and training and management supervision toward entrepreneurship attitudes and its implications to business growth, especially in Riau, Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate performance drivers of women-owned businesses that are funded primarily through microcredit. It draws on Storey’s theory of small business growth and family embeddedness axiom to examine the factors that drive the performance of businesses that are funded primarily through microcredit.

The paper uses a cross-sectional survey that covered 208 women business owners who had access to microcredit. The authors use a logistic regression analysis to model the relationship between independent variables and enterprise performance.

The paper demonstrates that microcredit plays a significant role in business performance. The credit amount has the most significant influence on the enterprise capital base, whereas the effect on profits is insignificant. Also, owners are more likely to report growth in profits if they possess skills in business management. In addition, younger business owners and necessity entrepreneurs are more likely to report success in their businesses. Other factors that have a significant effect on business performance are product cycle, loan use and family support.

Many women in Tanzania are entering business ownership and depend on microcredit as their primary source of capital for starting and growing their businesses. However, just a few businesses grow into small and medium-sized enterprises. For informed policy decisions, it is important that the factors influencing the performance of funded businesses are known and well understood. This understanding will help the government and development practitioners assist women in achieving business growth rates that could warrant their empowerment and poverty reduction prospects.