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The study explores growth barriers experienced by a sample of women subsistence entrepreneurs operating within the informal sector in South Africa.

The paper utilizes a descriptive-exploratory research approach and design relying on semi-structured interviews. A purposive sample of 45 women subsistence entrepreneurs formed the participant pool.

Three main narratives emerged. First, a sense of personal contentment existed as a potential barrier for women subsistence entrepreneurs. Second, the women subsistence entrepreneurs had no expansion strategy due to their circumstances. This served as a barrier to growth. Finally, challenges emanating from the home-front served as a limit to the growth of the informal sector business.

Based on the findings, strategies are offered to assist the women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the identified barriers to the growth of the informal sector business. A limitation of the research concerns issues that accompany qualitative research. Notably, these include sampling issues.

Based on the findings, strategies are offered to assist women subsistence entrepreneurs in tackling the barriers that affect their businesses.

Given the popularity of the informal sector in emerging nations such as South Africa, the study proffers suggestions that assist the advancement of subsistence entrepreneurship, especially within the informal sector. The role of women in all this is heightened.

Globalization and internationalization tendencies imply new challenges for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), which are either facing the pressure to achieve short‐term profits, or have to attract new market segments by means of long‐term strategies. This trend raises the question of growth perspectives of SMEs and their future development. The paper gives an insight into selected growth theories, entrepreneurship and SMEs, firm competencies, core competencies and the wellbeing of entrepreneurs as a growth indicator. The majority of SMEs are run by the family and characterized by low growth rates or even stagnation, and relatively low market entry and qualification barriers. An exploratory study was carried out among 3‐ and 4‐star hotels in South Tyrol (Italy) in 2004 for a better understanding of the driving forces, growth barriers, entrepreneur's satisfaction, and prerequisites and incentives of growth.

This paper aims to identify the barriers that are linked to the institutional, external and social environmental factors in the emerging economies of South-East Asia (SEA). Through a comparative analysis of China, India and Pakistan, this study attempts to understand the constraints that might inhibit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this region from becoming more successful.

This study proposes an empirical research framework to identify the constraints to determinants of SMEs’ growth (the CDSG model) in an important geographic and industrial cluster of SEA countries including China, India and Pakistan. Six propositions are tested, using data from 1,443 SMEs obtained from Enterprise Survey Data Repository database from the World Bank. Ordinary least-squares estimation is applied for statistical analyses and testing of the research propositions.

The results show the differential effects of the proposed CDSG model in China, India and Pakistan. Access to external finance is found to be irrelevant to the growth of SMEs in China, while it has a positive influence in India and Pakistan. Furthermore, in terms of the innovation process, partial mediation is traced. Using the tax rate factor, negative mediation is found between CDSG variables and SMEs’ growth. Both mediators play different roles in firm growth activities, while the level of significance of some variables is found to be more relevant to a specific region rather than to all.

The prudent management of the proposed CDSG variables could revolutionize the constraints facing SME growth, making them into success factors. This could invigorate the growth of SMEs’ in SEA countries. The paper concludes with practical implications for policymakers and investors.

This SMEs’ theoretical framework is the first to use innovation and tax rate mediators to highlight the determinants of business growth in three SEA regional economies (China, India and Pakistan).

This study aims to identify the challenges facing innovative startups in the construction environment, recommending possible self-help measures and society support.

A comprehensive literature survey informed a questionnaire survey on built environment startups in Hong Kong, followed by a statistical analysis and supplemented by written views of respondents. Validation by experts confirms the survey results.

Triangulated findings highlight the problems of conservative policies, investors’ preference on short payback periods, price competition, high operation cost and a lack of promotion channels. The firm’s size and its age differentiate its networking and fund-raising capabilities.

While the survey samples cover the spread of startups in Hong Kong’s construction/real estate industries well, the number is still limited because the city is relatively compact. The barriers and solutions may be particularly relevant to the built environment there, but also worth noting elsewhere.

Built environment startups are emerging and their path of development is obscured by industry barriers. While the findings reflect the current situation in Hong Kong, which is a metropolitan city with a vibrant construction market, government policies may present a varying factor in different economies. Conservatism in the construction industry may also be a hindrance, but gradual signs of improvements are seen.

The recommendations provided may help mitigate the problems of startup growth. They also provide insights into the construction “startup eco-system” worth the attention of policy makers and project managers, who may make better use of the innovative technology and services of built environment startups if the difficulties are alleviated.

The purpose of this study is to uncover ways to enhance the growth of micro tailoring businesses by assessing the socio-economic and socio-cultural environments at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP).

The study used a qualitative research design involving a multiple case study with data from semi-structured interview and non-participant observation.

The study reveals how micro tailoring businesses modify tailoring practices to cope with the religious practice of seclusion and use entrepreneurial actions to deal with unstable electricity, inadequate finance and conditions of extreme poverty that limit the growth of micro tailoring businesses at the BOP.

The qualitative nature of this study with a focus on micro tailoring businesses in BOP context could limit the generalization of findings. However, replication of the study can be done in other contexts to validate the findings.

The study shows the need for entrepreneurial leadership which continually modifies tailoring practices in ways that sustain tailoring businesses and circumvent the possibility of failure in adverse socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions.

This study is the first to unravel the experiences of micro tailoring businesses at the BOP. Past studies have assessed barriers to the growth of small and medium scale enterprises in general, but this study uncovers the distinct aspects of tailoring business in a largely under-researched context.

The purpose of current analytical work is to identify the critical barriers in social isolation in India amid Coronavirus infection disease (COVID) outbreak using the fuzzy-analytical hierarchical process (AHP) method.

The conventional AHP is insufficient for tackling the vague nature of linguistic assessment. Fuzzy AHP had been developed to resolve the hierarchical fuzzy problems, avoiding its risks on performance. In AHP, all comparisons are not included; thus, to find the priority of one decision variable over other, triangular fuzzy numbers are used.

A total of eight critical barriers in social distancing in India during COVID-19 have been compared and ranked. Dense population has emerged as the most culpable barrier in social isolation in India amid COVID outbreak followed by compulsion for pecuniary earning and general incautiousness. A total of eight critical barriers in social distancing in India during COVID-19 in four categories (societal barriers, insufficient facilitation barriers, growth-related barriers and population related barriers) have been compared and ranked.

On the basis of the numeral values, “growth-related barriers” attained top position followed by “population-related barriers” and “insufficient facilitation barriers.” The current work has explored the possible factors which can become key game changers to control the pace of spread of the pandemic.

This viewpoint will present some statistical information about employee ownership in the US and interpret and analyze this information in order to address the barriers question using material from qualitative interviews that the authors have conducted over the last ten years with practitioners in the field. There have been few actual empirical studies that sort out the different barriers to employee ownership. The authors have chosen to focus on employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in the US because this is the principal example from which people could learn from, and the high prevalence of ESOPs plays an important role in the US. This overview will present interpretations of these interviews with conceptual arguments that cannot always be supported with either overwhelming empirical studies or arguments that conclusively eliminate one or other explanation. This is an initial attempt to bring some comprehensive treatment and data to this incipient discussion. This is based on an interpretive analysis of qualitative interviews without quantification or social survey methods used for measurement. The advantage of this approach is that it lays out a completely different level of analysis of the barriers to employee ownership in the US that is “closer to the ground” and more based in the views of front-line practitioners who are actually implementing it.

Analysis and interpretation of qualitative interviews.

The list of barriers that has been identified is not exhaustive. The preliminary conclusions are that (not necessarily in this order) limitations of investment banking models, poor supportive infrastructure, complexity and cost and regulatory issues, the lack of support by political parties and social movements, the sale of companies due to financial considerations and legal complexities and lack of clarity and resistance by Federal agencies are major barriers in the US. Various sectors of Wall Street has been amenable to employee ownership with the proper government and private sector support. What is needed now is a series of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews of retiring business owners in closely held companies and of CEOs and CFOs in stock market companies in order to gauge the barriers that they believe are blocking their own action in the employee share ownership area. The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing is working on such a research agenda at this time. In addition, with the future size of the US employee ownership sector at stake, a more intensive one-year interview project would make sense in order to present these different explanations to key actors and practitioners and ask them to provide evidence to prove or disprove the relevance of the different barriers.

Empirical research which can resolve which barriers are more important than others is presented, when possible; however, studies that provide metrics to compare different barriers are not available and need to be carried out.

Other countries considering employee ownership policies can learn from the US experience. US policymakers and legislators can learn from an original, recent discussion of barriers.

If employee ownership sectors are to be developed, a careful discussion of barriers is most relevant.

Original document by the authors based on original interviews.

Women’s participation in the small business sector is a growing phenomenon worldwide. While considerable research has been conducted into the reasons why women enter small business and their penchant for operating solo operations or micro businesses (up to five employees) less is known about the heterogeneous nature of women in small business and the reasons behind their “failure” to “grow” their businesses. The research reported here concerns a major study into the status of women in small business in Australia. Apart from examining barriers which may prevent women from expanding their businesses the findings address a new paradigm of women in small business. This paradigm captures the multiple trajectories that women follow in their businesses the type of businesses that they operate and their relation to the stages of a woman’s/business life cycle. The findings hold important implications for policy makers who are attempting to devise programmes to assist this growing segment of the small business sector.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence in support of widespread calls for new approaches to understanding small business growth, by exploring the use of non-positivist methods (e.g. critical realism) to analyse how owners’ innate dispositions shape growth in practice.

In 2014, a telephone survey was used to inform two focus groups and 29 in-depth interviews with small business owners throughout England, covering attitudes towards growth, the use of particular strategies and perceived barriers. Discourse analysis was used to develop a multi-layered explanatory model incorporating key ideas from critical realism and the work of Bourdieu.

Bourdieusian analysis reveals the existence of orientations among small business owners towards or against business growth. Such attitudes tend to impact upon their response to perceived barriers. Growth-inclined owners were willing to strategise for long-term benefit, in return for lower returns in the short term. Growth-resistant owners were more likely to view obstacles as absolute, stating that they cannot grow their firms as a result.

Removing or reducing obstacles may not encourage growth if motivations and attitudes of owners do not change to embrace more growth-oriented positions. Banks’ lending practices, for example, were seen by many as problematic, but growth-oriented owners were more willing to seek and use alternatives to raise funds for growth.

The authors suggest that entrepreneurship researchers should look beyond positivist research to epistemologies that provide more multi-layered modes of explanation.

The purpose of this paper is to outline barriers to public-sector entrepreneurship and explore the impact of those barriers on population shifts within the USA.

This paper lays out five specific barriers to public-sector entrepreneurship: barriers to entry and exit for consumers and producers, increased centralization and concentration in government, the lack of residual claim amongst public-sector actors, the rise of public-sector union membership and increasingly uncompetitive elections. The paper then assesses the impact of each of these barriers on population and production changes within the USA from 2010 to 2017.

Those state governments with limited barriers for productive public-sector entrepreneurship are rewarded with faster growing populations. Specifically, states with higher incomes, less centralized spending, lower public-sector unionization rates and higher state credit ratings tend to experience the greatest levels of population growth. States with less centralized spending also experience the largest increases in gross state product per capita.

This paper offers practical applications for policy makers wishing to increase their tax bases, increase the standard of living for their constituents or increase the efficiency in production and distribution of government goods and services. In particular, this paper offers evidence that an improved credit rating carries the most economic significance for population gains.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to examine Tiebout effects from barriers to public-sector entrepreneurship in the USA. Researchers in fields including political science, economics, management and public policy have all contributed to our understanding of public entrepreneurship. And yet, there are still numerous barriers preventing productive public-sector entrepreneurship from occurring at an optimal level.