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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.

This paper aims to propose an account of the use of numbers and mathematical formulae and, more generally, of the quantitative aspects in the qualitative equity valuation model of the American investor Philip A. Fisher who is considered to be one of the fathers of the qualitative equity valuation models.

A Conceptual analysis was conducted (Glasersfeld, 1992) of the four volumes published by Fisher between 1954 and 1980 (1958, 1960, 1975, 1980) in relation to his equity valuation process. On the basis of this analysis, a modelization of this author’s perspective on quantitative instruments was built.

A modelization to use quantitative data in a qualitative equity valuation model that is sufficiently detailed and useful for an asset manager is proposed.

What is propose is a qualitative analysis of quantitative elements in the thought of a qualitative author on the subject of equity valuation. It is believed that this paper could be of interest to all those who use or are involved in the development of qualitative models of equity valuation or business valuation. This work is also an example of how conceptual analysis – generally employed in the field of mathematics education research – can be used to build descriptive models of decision-making processes of individual investors, models designed to enable the reproduction/approximation of the conceptual operations of the investor.

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the growth of women's businesses from a qualitative perspective. The paper identifies strategic building blocks for defining a set of different growth platforms. Moreover, the paper investigates growth ambitions for women inside each identified “type” of growth platform and identifies critical motivation variables that can influence the decision to move from growing one business platform to growing another platform.

The results are based on 191 women entrepreneurs. Data were analyzed by coding narrative statements from the survey into overarching themes for business platforms, descriptive frequency analysis and logistic regression analysis techniques.

The paper discerned five different growth platforms and noticed intrinsic or extrinsic growth ambitions for platform growth. The extrinsic platforms are the most common, but all platforms can be characterized by equally high growth aspirations. Each of the identified platforms is associated with distinct and unique blocks that the women entrepreneurs try to put together and resolve in order to grow their companies. Women entrepreneurs move between the different platforms when the building blocks of previous platforms have been established and secured. Variables such as profits and ownership may explain such transfers of growth ambitions.

While acknowledging the qualitative growth of business platforms, the paper takes an approach that goes against the traditional view of quantitative growth.

This study is a response to the lack of research on qualitative growth and women's entrepreneurship and suggests that the manifested qualitative growth can be in order to secure blocks on different business platforms.

This paper aims to analyze the role of networking through formalization, namely, the adoption of specific contractual forms, in triggering small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs’) qualitative growth. The paper adopts an approach to SMEs’ growth that stresses the multi-dimensionality nature of the concept, which includes not only size but also relationship and capability growth.

A qualitative methodology is used, based on the study of cases of SMEs from an Italian fashion district, connected by a specific contractual form – the so-called “network contract” (NC) – promoted by the national government. Two cases of NCs are presented, a vertical and a horizontal network.

The paper highlighted the positive influence of NCs, intended as a managerial strategy not only aimed at collaboration, on the growth paths of SMEs but also stressed that the influence of NCs cannot be isolated, but acts virtuously together with other variables. Such variables include entrepreneurs’ and managers’ individual traits, the context – industrial district in the two cases under study – in which SMEs operate, the presence of an external actor that stimulates the adoption of NCs.

The focus on qualitative growth, which can be triggered by the formalization of business relationships through contractual forms, contributes to the debate on the nature and content of SMEs’ growth. The awareness of the variables that contribute to SMEs’ growth is crucial for both entrepreneurs and institutional actors who want to create the conditions to undertake paths of qualitative growth.

This research aimed to describe the phenomenon of the growth of enterprises in the vision of social entrepreneurs.

This is a qualitative study developed joining eight social entrepreneurs in four organizations, two cooperatives and two associations. Data were obtained in semi structured interviews. Data were analyzed with interpretativist and the classical content analysis.

The main findings indicated the growth phenomenon presented in five categories: growth intentions, growth meanings, support of other organizations and participation in networks, strategies and difficulties. The results of the research have shown that the growth for the social entrepreneurs is a collective phenomenon, characterized by search of economic value and empowerment.

The main limitation of the research was study only two types of organizations, one garbage cooperative and two association.

The results can help managers of social incubators and stakeholders because it was evidenced the efforts and difficulties that social entrepreneurs face to survive and to search growth.

Our findings may contribute to the formulation of public policies oriented to social entrepreneurs.

This paper presents the first theoretical contribution about the growth in a specific context, the context of social entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to examine the nature and extent of forward-looking disclosures in early examples of integrated reporting and to investigate the determinants of those disclosures.

The sample for research involved 55 non-financial companies whose reports are available in the Integrated Reporting Examples Database for the year 2014. The authors used content analysis to investigate the quantitative and qualitative forward-looking disclosures among early adopters of integrated reporting. The forward-looking disclosure index (FLDI) was categorized into two main groups, quantitative and qualitative, including 30 items in total. Multivariate ordinary least squares regression was used to investigate the associations proposed in the research hypotheses.

The authors determined that the majority of the entities tended to provide qualitative forward-looking disclosures rather than quantitative. Further, the findings showed that gender diversity and firm size are positively related to forward-looking disclosures, whereas leverage is negatively related to forward-looking disclosures. Contrary to expectations, the authors did not find a significant impact created by board size, board composition, profitability or industry on forward-looking disclosures.

The research contributes to the current integrated reporting and forward-looking disclosure literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no prior study that has investigated forward-looking disclosures in integrated reports. This study contributes to the current literature by examining the determinants of forward-looking disclosures by categorizing them as quantitative and qualitative. Further, this research adds empirical findings to the literature on the association found between female directors and forward-looking disclosures.

Universally, university is considered as the apex body which is ethically obliged to present a substantial society. In doing so, universities often innovate dynamic business models and theories. Ideally, the countries whose universities contribute for better and sustainable business growth are the advanced one. However, universities themselves should be the business organisation – an argument is yet to receive attention. Although literature lacks in the area of education business especially university provision, the sector behaves as business entity after the inception of private sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the paradigm transformation of university sector and its impact on the society.

Given the differentiated nature of research questions, multiple techniques are used to collect the data. However, this research adopts the norms of qualitative methods. Both secondary and primary data are used. While secondary data are collected by University Grants Commission (UGC), primary data are collected through interviews.

Findings show that the development of university sector started following monopoly model. More than half a century, the same model was continued. Thereafter, duopoly model was introduced which carried until the inception of private sector. The growth of private sector followed oligopoly model which was further extended to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These days, society compares university with “diploma mill”, as production of knowledge and civic society is longer than the part of the core business of university. Consequently, compromising with research is to be judged as a threat to overall development that includes business and social development.

A few studies have been published in the area of private university. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, none covers the oligopoly-ism and SME-ism behaviour of university and its impact on the concept of university and on the society. Therefore, this project aims to understand the norms of university business and its substantial contribution on the social change.

The purpose of this paper is to refer to ecological economics using two meanings of the term “ecological”. In the strict scientific sense, ecological economics refers to an economic system that is consistent with and honors the basic principles of ecology, which, ultimately, are identical with what the authors call the systemic principles of life. In a broader sense ecological economics refers to economic theory and practice that see the economy as operating within, rather than dominating, the spheres of nature, society, and culture.

The authors distill four fundamental principles for ecological economics based on systems theory of life and philosophy of organism. The four principles are; nested systems, self-generating networks, open systems, and cognitive interactions. The authors discuss how these principles can be applied to design an ecological economic system that is life-enhancing on individual, social and ecological levels.

The authors argue that ecological economics should give priority to activities that maximize well-being of human and non-human beings, as well as entire ecosystems, and that its central purpose should be to serve the life processes in social and ecological systems.

In this paper, the authors connect ecological economics to systems theory and come up with principles relevant for developing economic theory and practice within, rather than dominating, the spheres of nature, society, and culture.

The relationship between man and nature varies with different stages of the development of human society. The destructive consequences brought about in the early stage of industrialization sparked serious concerns about ecological and environmental issues.

The worldwide controversy aroused by The Limits to Growth published in 1972 made people realize that the carrying capacity of the ecosystem was limited, as were the resources. In the long run, scientific and technological progress can constantly discover new energy and resources.

However, in every specific stage of human society, the energy and resources crises are always a severe challenge that human beings should face. It is the core contents of sustainable development to change the old economic growth model and explore a new economic growth model.

The relationship between man and nature is one of the most fundamental relationships in human society and economic development. How to deal with it is also one of the most fundamental issues in human society and economic development. From the perspective of the historical process of human society, the relationship has roughly gone through the following stages.

Research on entrepreneurship has documented differences in male and female entrepreneurs' growth ambitions. It has sometimes been criticized for disregarding important questions and contributions and for favoring a purely economic perspective. This includes a tendency to compare female entrepreneurs with a male norm. In this article, the authors, therefore, apply a more constructive approach and ask how and why entrepreneurial strategies are gendered. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

By analysing six cases, three female- and three male-dominated companies, the authors examined how men and women do business. The authors based the analysis on Miles and Snow's typology on product and market strategy and at the same time expanded it.

The findings substantiated that women and men have similar qualities as entrepreneurs, but women's ambitions and values tend to be different to those espoused by men. This influences their growth strategies. The Miles and Snow typology was adjusted to encompass different growth strategies; staying small or expanding. The article discusses the implications of these findings for regional development and sustainability.

The research design in this article does not necessarily allow the authors to grasp the internal workings of a typical small- or medium-sized business. Neither does it provide generalizable information. Instead, the authors chose to focus on highly gendered sectors of industry to identify potential gender differences.

This article contributes to theory on the motivation for entrepreneurship and to research on growth strategies. It also contributes to the literature on Miles and Snow's typology questioning the taken-for-granted goal of growth in economic theories and raising the question of advantages of the choice of staying small. The authors direct the focus to perspectives of embeddedness and intersectionality as a direction for future research.