| 1. |
- Achtenhagen, Leona, et al.
(författare)
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"Business growth" : do practitioners and scholars really talk about the same thing?
- 2010
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship. - : SAGE Publications. - 1042-2587 .- 1540-6520. ; 43:2, s. 289-316
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current growth literature has stalled over which measures to use in empirical studies, causing a fragmented theory base. This paper claims that there is a third issue that further curbs efforts in developing a better understanding of business growth. Based on a thorough literature review, a quantitative, and a qualitative study, we find that academic scholars and entrepreneurs do not talk about the same thing when they say “business growth.” For practitioners, growth is a more complex phenomenon — with a strong emphasis on internal development — which differs from the simplified conceptualization of growth used in empirical studies.
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| 2. |
- Achtenhagen, Leona, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Dynamics of Business Models - Strategizing, Critical Capabilities and Activities for Sustained Value Creation
- 2013
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Ingår i: Long range planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0024-6301 .- 1873-1872. ; 46:6, s. 427-442
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Much progress has been made recently in developing the business model concept. However, one issue remains poorly understood, despite its importance for managers, policy makers, and academics alike, namely, how companies change and develop their business models to achieve sustained value creation. Companies which manage to create value over extended periods of time successfully shape, adapt and renew their business models to fuel such value creation. Drawing on findings from a research program on continuously growing firms, this paper identifies three critical capabilities, namely an orientation towards experimenting with and exploiting new business opportunities; a balanced use of resources; as well as achieving coherence between leadership, culture, and employee commitment, together shaping key strategizing actions. Moreover, we illustrate how each of these capabilities is supported by different sets of specific activities. Jointly, these three capabilities, their activities and the strategizing actions act as complementarities for value creation. We conclude the paper by suggesting implications for research and practitioners, providing a tool for managers which allows them to reflect on and identify critical issues relevant for changing and developing their business model to sustain value creation.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Arregle, Jean-Luc, et al.
(författare)
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Internationalization of Family-Controlled Firms : A Study of the Effects of External Involvement in Governance
- 2012
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Ingår i: Entrepreneurship. - : SAGE Publications. - 1042-2587 .- 1540-6520. ; 36:6, s. 1115-1143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This research focuses on family-controlled firms as an important type of family firms, and demonstrates how external parties in the governance (ownership and board of directors) can serve as a catalyst for their internationalization. Our framework also embraces the moderating effects of the competitive environmental heterogeneity and past performance on the relationship between external, nonfamily involvement in governance, and internationalization (scale and scope). The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 351 Swedish family-controlled firms. Our findings extend previous research on family firms and their internationalization, especially addressing some of the prior mixed findings, and offers implications for both theory and practice.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Cavaliere, Vincenzo Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Internationalization and Innovation in Small Firms : A Knowledge Based Perspective
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Building on the knowledge-based view and organizational learning theory, this paper examines the effects of inward and outward internationalization on small firm innovation to further our knowledge about the outcomes of internationalization. The results of the analysis carried out on a sample of small firms operating in the mechanical industry in Italy show that export intensity has a direct and negative effect on innovation. Additionally, the results show that import intensity exhibits a curvilinear effect (inverted U-shaped) on innovation. The study contributes to the international management literature by empirically linking inward and outward international strategies with innovation in small firms. This research provides evidence of the complexity involved with the effects of internationalization on innovation and has important practical implications for small firms managers.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Davidsson, Per, et al.
(författare)
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Small Firm Growth
- 2010
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Ingår i: Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship. - : Now Publishers Inc.. - 1551-3114 .- 1551-3122. ; 6:2, s. 69-166
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- We review and discuss the literature on small firm growth with an intention to provide a useful vantage point for new research studies regarding this important phenomenon. We first discuss conceptual and methodological issues that represent critical choices for those who research growth and which make it challenging to compare results from previous studies. The substantial review of past research is organized into four sections representing two smaller and two larger literatures. The first of the latter focuses on internal and external drivers of small firm growth. Here we find that much has been learnt and that many valuable generalizations can be made. However, we also conclude that more research of the same kind is unlikely to yield much. While interactive and non-linear effects may be worth pursuing it is unlikely that any new and important growth drivers or strong, linear main effects would be found. The second "large" literature deals with organizational life-cycles or stages of development. While deservedly criticized for unwarranted determinism and weak empirics this type of approach addresses problems of high practical and also theoretical relevance, and should not be shunned by researchers. We argue that with a change in the fundamental assumptions and improved empirical design, research on the organizational and managerial consequences of growth is an important line of inquiry. With this, we overlap with one of the "smaller" literatures, namely studies focusing on the effects of growth. We argue that studies too often assume that growth equals success. We advocate instead the use of growth as an intermediary variable that influences more fundamental goals in ways that should be carefully examined rather than assumed. The second "small" literature distinguishes between different modes or forms of growth, including, e.g., organic vs. acquisition-based growth, and international expansion. We note that modes of growth is an important topic that has been under studied in the growth literature, whereas in other branches of research aspects of it may have been studied intensely, but not primarily from a growth perspective. In the final section we elaborate on ways forward for research on small firm growth. We point at rich opportunities for researchers who look beyond drivers of growth, where growth is viewed as a homogenous phenomenon assumed to unambiguously reflect success, and instead focus on growth as a process and a multi-dimensional phenomenon, as well as on how growth relates to more fundamental outcomes.
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| 10. |
- De Massis, Alfredo, et al.
(författare)
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The temporal evolution of proactiveness in family firms: the horizontal s-curve hypothesis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Family Business Review. - : Sage Publications. - 0894-4865 .- 1741-6248. ; 27:1, s. 35-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We extend prior work on proactiveness in family firms by examining the relationship between firm age and proactiveness. Specifically, we propose an S-shaped effect of aging of family firms on proactiveness. Additionally, we provide a contingency perspective by considering the moderating role of the dispersion of managerial control among family members. Using a sample of Swiss family firms, we find that proactiveness first declines, then increases, and finally decreases again as the family firm ages, and that this relationship is steeper when the managerial control is dispersed among multiple family members.
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