JournalTOCs

International Small Business Journal
Journal Prestige (SJR): 1.974

Citation Impact (citeScore): 4
Number of Followers: 11

Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
ISSN (Print) 0266-2426 - ISSN (Online) 1741-2870
Published by Sage Publications

[1174 journals]

In search of the next growth episode: How firms catalyse and sustain
periods of high growth
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  Authors: Simon Raby, Mark Hart, Brian Harney
  Pages: 671 - 683
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Volume 40, Issue 6, Page 671-683, September 2022.
  This is an introductory article to the special issue In Search of the Next Growth Episode: How Firms Catalyse and Sustain Periods of High Growth. The article reviews alternative streams of research on firm growth, including ‘random growth’, ‘responsive growth’ and ‘resourceful growth’. The themes of, and contributions to, the Special Issue are presented. Finally, we identify a number of directions for future research, including the importance of unpacking the drivers and causes of high growth episodes (HGEs), amplifying the role of the leader in research on firm growth, while questioning the desired outcomes and consequences of growth. We assert that there is still much to learn about firm growth. Our hope is that this special issue inspires new approaches and an enlarged understanding in this domain.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-09-17T02:52:08Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221108631
  Issue No: Vol. 40, No. 6 (2022)
On the consequences of firm growth
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  Authors: Mark Freel, Ian Gordon
  Pages: 684 - 709
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Volume 40, Issue 6, Page 684-709, September 2022.
  Recent contributions to the literature on small firm growth have been marked by a growing sense of frustration with the state-of-the-art and what it implicates in both theory and policy. In short, while growth episodes appear relatively common, a tiny proportion of firms sustain growth and ‘scale’. This calls into question the very basis upon which policies seeking to target high growth firms (HGFs) rest. In addition, it cautions against perspectives that view growth as the essence of entrepreneurship. In this paper, we argue that understanding the frequency of growth episodes and the rarity of sustained growth requires a better understanding of growth consequences. To this end, we describe case study evidence from ambitious entrepreneurs whose firms experienced an episode of high growth followed by longer periods of mixed performance. Our goal is to shed light on how the experience of growing affects further growth. Our data provide initial insights into the mechanisms linking past growth to growth motivations and into the ways in which past growth lays the foundations for future performance.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-09-17T02:51:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221074053
  Issue No: Vol. 40, No. 6 (2022)
Mid-size firm growth: The process and empirical examination of key drivers
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  Authors: Gary Wolbers, Arun K Pillutla
  Pages: 710 - 741
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Volume 40, Issue 6, Page 710-741, September 2022.
  The growth of the mid-sized enterprise arguably facilitates the resilience and stability needed for a thriving economy, even though such firms are comparatively overlooked or underrepresented in the scholarly literature. Further, the process of how mid-sized firms grow is seemingly unexplained. We address this gap in the literature through qualitative research and unveil a growth process model for mid-sized enterprise, illuminating the interaction of relationship and resource variables that are orchestrated by managers to achieve growth. Results from our research capture formative interactions and how they are developed, exploitative strategies coupled with galvanised relationships and integrated relationship and resource complexity as drivers to state-dependent growth. We unpack which variables foster growth as well as how, where and when they do so and contribute to literature with finer-grained description and prescription for growth objectives in mid-sized firms.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-09-17T02:52:00Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221097385
  Issue No: Vol. 40, No. 6 (2022)
Under which circumstances do family SMES achieve high growth' A
behavioural perspective
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  Authors: Tommaso Minola, Massimo Baù, Mara Brumana, Alfredo De Massis
  Pages: 768 - 798
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Volume 40, Issue 6, Page 768-798, September 2022.
  High-growth firms contribute disproportionately to the creation of employment, wealth and economic development on a global basis. Yet, knowledge of the circumstances under which such growth patterns occur is limited, and the findings with regard to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are inconclusive. Adopting the behavioural agency model, we analyse the effect of family control and related nuances (i.e. degree of family ownership and presence of a family chief executive officer (CEO)) on SME growth. Furthermore, we argue that the type of slack resources and their availability are a crucial organisational contingency when investigating high growth in SMEs. Using a sample of 39,631 European SMEs over a 13-year period, we find that family firms are less likely to achieve high growth compared to non-family firms; having a family CEO further reduces this likelihood. Instead, at higher (vs lower) levels of family ownership, the probability of family firms achieving high growth increases. Furthermore, the availability of high- and low-discretion slack resources influences these relationships. Our study advances current understanding of high growth in general, and family firms in particular.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-09-17T02:52:04Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221102859
  Issue No: Vol. 40, No. 6 (2022)
How political connections affect entrepreneurial risk-taking in SMEs: A
symmetric assessment and a configurational approach
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  Authors: Jing A. Zhang, Tao Bai, Conor O’Kane
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Drawing on resource dependency theory and the resource-absorbing perspective of risk-taking, this article examines how political connections provide firms with opportunities to gain government funding support to enhance financial slack, which can in turn benefit their entrepreneurial risk-taking. We employ both symmetrical (partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM)) and configurational approaches (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)) using a sample of 202 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. Our results from PLS-SEM suggest government financial funding support and financial slack play sequential mediating roles in the relationship between political connections and entrepreneurial risk-taking. The results of fsQCA further highlight the importance of political connections and financial slack as core conditions for entrepreneurial risk-taking and uncover the multiple pathways through which political connections influence entrepreneurial risk-taking. These findings advance our understanding of how entrepreneurial risk-taking in SMEs may require configurations of different resources.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-09-10T06:21:56Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221122845
How do entrepreneurs and their ventures benefit from prior setbacks: The
mediating role of attitude towards failure
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  Authors: Wenwei Zhang, Pek-Hooi Soh, Wenhong Zhao
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  By integrating an experiential learning view into an attitude model, we propose that an entrepreneur’s attitude towards failure resulting from a prior setback experience can positively affect a new venture’s commitment to learning. Moreover, the entrepreneur may be exposed to indirect experiential information by gaining access to managerial ties in the venture industry, moderating the influence of prior setback experience on attitudes towards failure. We developed a conceptual model to account for the conditional and indirect effects of an entrepreneur’s setback experience on organisational commitment to learning through the entrepreneur’s attitude towards failure. Using structural equation modelling, we analysed a sample of 143 entrepreneurs located in Western China’s high-technology industrial development zones and found full support for our model. This study provides theoretical and empirical insights into the intertwined relationships between context-specific experiences, individual attitude development and venture outcomes in entrepreneurship.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-08-22T07:29:51Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221118208
The technological novelty of invention and speed to IPO of high-tech
start-ups
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  Authors: Congshan Li, Jieyu Zhou
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  The technological novelty of inventions signals economic potential while simultaneously indicating considerable technological and market risks. We speculate that unlike early-stage venture capital (VC) investors, late-stage public investors will interpret technological novelty as a signal of high risks. Consequently, they will hesitate to promptly invest in high-tech start-ups with such inventions, thereby slowing the initial public offering speed of the start-ups. Based on a sample of 408 VC-backed healthcare start-ups founded between 1990 and 2010, we find support for our hypothesis. We also find that the negative effect of technological novelty of inventions can be relieved when the technology is characterised by conventionality, when the founder is also the inventor, or when the start-up is backed by premium VC investors.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-08-22T06:50:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221115717
Book Review: Strategies for Distributed and Collective Action: Connecting
the Dots
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  Authors: Richard T Harrison
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-08-11T12:32:16Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221110144
Factor markets, institutional quality and firm formalisation: The
contingent effect of economic conditions at the founding stage
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  Authors: Katia M Galdino, Gonzalo Molina-Sieiro, Bruce T Lamont, R Michael Holmes
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  The informal economy makes an important contribution to economic activity but knowledge about the country-level conditions that influence an informal firm’s willingness to formalise is limited. This article integrates insights from institutional theory and the imprinting hypothesis to explain how factor markets and institutional quality affect the likelihood that informal firms formalise over time, as well as how these effects are contingent on economic conditions at the founding stage. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys comprising of 8005 observations from 2477 firms in 73 countries, the results suggest that better factor markets and institutional quality increase the likelihood of formalisation and these relationships are strengthened by favourable economic conditions at the founding stage. The low correlation between factor markets and institutional quality supports the importance of separating these dimensions, while the moderating effect of economic conditions at the founding stage supports the importance of imprinting.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-07-06T09:38:11Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221101021
Small and medium-sized enterprises response to Covid-19: The effect of
external openness and procedural management
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  Authors: Jonas Fasth, Niklas Åkerman, Viktor Elliot, Mikael Hilmersson
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Crisis management research is strongly influenced by the behaviour of large multinationals with few insights into how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) mitigate the negative effects of exogenous shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Inspired by the capability-based view on crisis management, we postulate that management openness and degree of interactivity determine SME crisis response. We test our theoretical model with an original dataset of 902 Swedish SMEs compiled from a telephone-based survey conducted in June 2020. We find that formalised procedures for crisis management and openness to input from others, particularly external actors, enhances an organisation’s ability to make a decisive rapid response. We discuss our findings and suggest that formalised procedures and openness are important components of an SME’s rapid response capability.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-07-01T07:33:12Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221101528
Legitimacy and innovation in social enterprises
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  Authors: Raluca Bunduchi, Alison U Smart, Catalina Crisan-Mitra, Sarah Cooper
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article examines the interrelationship between legitimacy building efforts – the different ways in which social enterprises (SEs) conform to stakeholder expectations – and types of innovation – the different approaches by which they create social and economic value through product, process and business model innovation. Using a multi-case study research design of twenty SEs in Scotland and Romania, we find that the SEs adjusted their approach to legitimacy building depending upon the types of innovation and stakeholder involved. Also, while all SEs pursued pragmatic and moral legitimacy through conforming with their stakeholders’ expectations, the type of innovation shaped the way in which they prioritised one form of legitimacy over another to deal with the tensions involved in pursuing legitimacy with heterogeneous stakeholders. This finding emphasises the importance of innovation type when explaining how SEs balance the tensions involved in trying to conform to a wide range of heterogeneous stakeholders with different expectations.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-06-07T08:50:32Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221102860
From adversity to advice: Survival threats as a trigger for sustained
engagement with external business support in small firms
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  Authors: Halima Jibril, Maria Wishart, Stephen Roper
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article analyses the relationship between the experience of a crisis and advice seeking in small firms. Although the benefits of business advice and support to smaller firms are well documented, smaller firms are often reluctant to seek external advice, relying instead on informal routines and a focus on daily operations. Conceptualising crisis as a trigger for advice seeking, and using survey data from 2089 small firms, we find a strong and significant relationship between experiencing a crisis and seeking external business advice up to 5 years after the crisis. This sustained effect on advice seeking is particularly strong for firms who also sought advice at the time of the crisis. Additionally, we find that the effect of a business crisis on sustained advice seeking is stronger for firms subject to a crisis with external origins.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-06-07T01:20:53Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221105004
How would foreign entrepreneurs deal with pressures for corruption' A
micro-foundational approach
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  Authors: Kun Liu, Len J Treviño, Ahmad Al Asady
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Is corruption good or bad for entrepreneurship' Prior research has presented mixed results when exploring this question. This article takes a micro-foundational approach by focussing on how foreign entrepreneurs cognitively deal with corruption in the host environment. We argue that the entrepreneur’s motivational antecedent to engaging in corruption, or corruption propensity, represents a cognitive belief in the legitimacy and effectiveness of corruption. We find that higher corruption propensity leads to lower firm growth. In addition, the effects of corruption propensity are conditioned by the corruption difference between home and host countries. Finally, we discuss implications for research, practice and public policy.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-06-01T04:48:25Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221094763
Multipartner alliances among small firms promoted by external managers:
Risk and governance mechanisms
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  Authors: María L Vélez, José M Sánchez, Pedro Araújo
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  External managers may be key to setting up and managing multi-partner alliances (MPAs) among small firms, but their role has not yet been integrated in previous literature on risk and governance structures. This longitudinal matched-pair case study investigates the dynamics between relational and performance risks and control-based and trust-based governance mechanisms, in MPAs promoted and managed by external managers. The integration of external managers allows the identification of different levels of trust and control among partners. This is also the case between such partners and the external manager who controls/trusts, who is controlled/trusted, and how this changes over time. Our results show that trust and control are influenced by both the external actor and partner’s risk perceptions; they also complement each other to manage high performance and relational risks in a dynamic process. We extend prior knowledge by showing that the analysis of control/trust complementarity must take into consideration both partner-partner and partner-manager relationships.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-31T07:15:32Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221100182
Individual religious affiliation, religiosity and entrepreneurial
intentions among students in four countries
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  Authors: Olivier Giacomin, Frank Janssen, Rachel S Shinnar, Katherine Gundolf, Nematollah Shiri
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article explores religion and religiosity in the field of entrepreneurship. Based on an original, international dataset of 740 students, we examine the impact of individual religious affiliation (Protestant, Catholic or Muslim) or non-affiliation (Agnostic/Atheist) on entrepreneurial intentions. We further examine the influence of individual religiosity (beyond mere religious affiliation) on entrepreneurial intentions, offering new insights as to the role religion and religiosity play in entrepreneurship. Findings support the notion that religion matters when entrepreneurial intentions are concerned. We show that having a religious affiliation – as compared to identifying as an Agnostic/Atheist – has a positive relationship with entrepreneurial intentions. More importantly, we show that religiosity – not just religious affiliation – affects intentions differently across different religions, thus pointing to the importance of taking religiosity into account, and not only religious affiliation. We also show that followers of a specific religion cannot be regarded as a uniform group when it comes to entrepreneurship and that it is important to differentiate between streams.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-18T11:43:54Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221097910
Starting up, not slowing down: Social entrepreneurial intentions in later
working-life
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  Authors: Zeineb Djebali, MariaLaura Di Domenico, Mark NK Saunders
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Despite a growing literature on entrepreneurial intentions, there remain gaps in the understanding of how these are affected by the age of later working-life social entrepreneurs. This research examined the ‘over-50s’ social entrepreneur understandings of age as an antecedent of their social entrepreneurial intentions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 UK-based social entrepreneurs. Our findings demonstrate that social entrepreneurial intentions in later working-life are influenced by an interplay of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life, age being perceived as a positive construct rather than as a barrier. Our research contributes to the social entrepreneurship and small business literature by enhancing and advancing current knowledge and theorisation of the social entrepreneurial intentions of the over-50s. We reveal first, how social entrepreneurs make sense of their older age and the influence of their social entrepreneurial intentions; and second, how these social entrepreneurial intentions are formed by the intertwining of necessity, fulfilment and experienced later life.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-14T07:42:52Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221093570
Book review: Entrepreneurial Strategy: Starting, Managing, and Scaling New
Ventures
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  Authors: Radha Vyas, BCP BBA
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-14T03:21:20Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221095227
Book review: Immigrant entrepreneurship: Cases from contemporary Poland
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  Authors: Seth Butler
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-13T05:16:31Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221095201
Pace of innovation and speed of small and medium-sized enterprise
international expansion
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  Authors: Mikael Hilmersson, Firouze Pourmand Hilmersson, Sylvie Chetty, Roger Schweizer
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  The literature emphasises that technological advances have enabled firms to expand internationally at accelerated speed. Yet, technological advances are treated as a contextual variable and little is known about how firm-level technological innovations influence the internationalisation speed of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To address this shortcoming, we draw on insights based on capability development theory to establish the effects of innovation timing and pace on SME international expansion speed. We test our conceptual model using a sample of 180 Swedish SMEs and show that the faster the innovation pace, the faster the internationalisation. We then address the boundary conditions of this relationship to show that the elapsed time between a firm’s founding and first innovation negatively moderates the positive effects of its innovation pace. Our findings have theoretical, managerial and policy implications.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-06T10:31:28Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221085193
The emergence of team entrepreneurial passion from team helping: An
affective events theory perspective
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  Authors: Xiumei Zhu, Shan Yang, Endrit Kromidha
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Research has acknowledged the outcomes of entrepreneurial passion, but little is known in regard to how it occurs. In this article, we shift the focus to the team level and investigate the emergence of team entrepreneurial passion (TEP) from the team helping perspective. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), we examine how team help-seeking and -giving facilitate TEP. Team-level analyses were performed on data drawn from 487 members of 112 new venture teams in an accelerator for high-technology firms in China. Our findings show that team help-seeking and -giving are in a direct relationship with TEP; we highlight how the interaction between these two aspects is positively associated with TEP. This article extends the study of TEP to team helping and treats the latter in relation to its two separate but related aspects of seeking and giving. Further, our focus moves from singular effects to an interactive perspective on the antecedents of TEP.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-05T06:47:52Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221089499
Mixed embeddedness and entrepreneurship beyond new venture creation:
Opportunity tensions in the case of reregulated public markets
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  Authors: Lena Högberg, Craig Mitchell
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  The mixed embeddedness (ME) perspective offers a holistic approach to understanding entrepreneurship as embedded in a myriad of contexts. Alone, however, it is not capable of explaining the dynamic interrelations between entrepreneurship and opportunity structures beyond venture start-up. We offer a synthesis between ME and the dynamic states approach, using the concept of opportunity tension to explore the recursive interplay between entrepreneurial agency and opportunity structures. The integrated approach is applied to, and developed by drawing upon, the case of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the changing Swedish welfare state following customer choice reform. We explore opportunity tensions that arise during start-up, growth and exit for two firms that provide care for the elderly in public quasi-markets. We develop concepts that account for different patterns of embeddedness and opportunity tensions as well as bottom-up effects of entrepreneurship in terms of reregulation and conclude that the interplay amounts to a paradox of ethnicity.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-05-05T02:16:30Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221083827
Entrepreneurial passion and venture profit: Examining the moderating
effects of political connections and environmental dynamism in an emerging
market
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  Authors: Samuel Adomako, Kevin F Mole, Rebecca J Franklin, Charles Y Murnieks
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article analyses the contingent factors which influence the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. While research on entrepreneurial passion is burgeoning, studies that analyse contingent factors and boundary conditions surrounding entrepreneurial passion theory are sparse. Moreover, we know very little about how the influence of entrepreneurial passion on venture outcomes might vary in emerging markets, typically characterised by higher levels of bureaucratic involvement and institutional deficiencies. We extend entrepreneurial passion theory by testing a contingent model that evaluates the influence of political connections and environmental dynamism on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. More specifically, we examine the role of passion on venture profit and the moderating impact of political connections and perceived environmental dynamism. Using time-lagged data from 231 small businesses in Ghana, we find that political connections amplify the potency of passion as a driver of venture profit. In addition, we find that this interaction is conditioned by environmental dynamism; specifically, the moderating effect of political connections on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit is stronger when dynamism is high. Our fine-grained analysis increases the conceptual scope and generalisability of entrepreneurial passion to non-Western contexts.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-04-28T09:40:47Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221085182
Entrepreneurial Leadership in Austrian Family SMEs: A Configurational
Approach
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  Authors: Andreas Strobl, Andreas Kallmuenzer, Mike Peters
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article explores the role of stewardship practices related to entrepreneurial leadership in turning entrepreneurial orientation (EO) into family firm performance while considering its environmental context. Family business research has not fully investigated how the EO–financial performance relationship depends on configurations of internal and external factors which establish strategic fit. We argue that family firms can overcome the often-highlighted paternalism-entrepreneurship paradox by employing stewardship practices related to entrepreneurial leadership (internal factor), which in turn can help them leverage strategic fit between EO and dynamic environments (external factor). The results of a survey of 162 Austrian small and medium-sized family enterprises (family SMEs) show that family SMEs can only profit from EO under certain configurations of internal and external factors. Employing stewardship practices related to entrepreneurial leadership turns out to be an efficient and necessary condition for transforming EO into performance. Environmental dynamism is, furthermore, a double-edged sword facilitating and impeding the transformation of EO into performance. These findings contribute to existing research by shedding light on the role of stewardship practices in establishing strategic fit in entrepreneurial 10 years family firms.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-04-28T04:46:59Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221084918
Juggling on a tightrope: Experiences of small and micro business managers
responding to employees with mental health difficulties
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  Authors: Jane Suter, Annie Irvine, Carole Howorth
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article presents findings from an in-depth qualitative study focused exclusively on the first-hand experiences of small and micro businesses managers who have responded to employees with mental health difficulties. Despite growing policy focus on workplace mental health, empirical research evidence on management experiences of responding to mental health issues in a small or micro business context is rare. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 UK-based small and micro business managers who described 45 individual employee cases, we examine how managers traverse a support-performance continuum, and use a tension-based lens to analyse the tensions that managers experienced. We examine three key tensions for small and micro business managers that surfaced when responding to employees with mental health problems: (1) Individual vs Collective; (2) Confidence vs Caution; (3) Informal vs Formal. Our analysis exposes how managers handle tensions when managing at the nexus of support and performance and contributes a deeper understanding of the dynamics and challenges of managing mental health problems in small and micro businesses.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-04-23T08:06:36Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221084252
Coopetition strategy as naturalised practice in a cluster of informal
businesses
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  Authors: William PK Darbi, Paul Knott
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article builds on existing analyses of coopetition strategy as practice by exploring coopetition as a social-structural and relational phenomenon. We draw on social practice theory to present an analysis of coopetition in a cluster of small informal businesses in Accra, Ghana. In so doing, we adopt a comprehensive socio-cultural perspective enabling us to account for a wider range of antecedents, drivers and both intended and unintended outcomes for individuals, firms, clusters and wider institutions. We show how immersive cooperation among competing firms became a naturalised practice in the cluster, embedded as a cultural assumption. Following this, we develop a conceptual framework that shows how the actions of individuals (agency) and strength of institutional and societal (structure) influences may lead to different forms of small business coopetition strategy.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-04-13T02:29:58Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221079728
Business unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment
in small and medium-sized enterprise market entry
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  Authors: Mikael Hilmersson, Martin Johanson, Stylianos Papaioannou, Helene Lundberg
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Market entry performance is critical during internationalisation; prevailing views suggest that firms need to carefully plan their entry before putting the plan into action. This article focuses on three attributes affecting the possibility and usefulness of making a pre-planned market entry: unpredictability, improvisation and business network commitment. We develop six hypotheses tested on a sample of 250 entries; our main finding is that improvisation plays a mediating role in relation to performance in unpredictable markets. The analysis reveals that the relationship between unpredictability and network commitment is not significant, while the effect of unpredictability on market entry performance is negative. These findings suggest implications for internationalisation and international entrepreneurship theory. For managers and entrepreneurs, we show that unpredictability weakens market entry performance, a negative effect that can be mitigated if the entrant firm improvises.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-03-21T07:49:24Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211069964
Effectual market creation in the cross-border e-commerce of small- and
medium-sized enterprises
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  Authors: Daniel Tolstoy, Sara Melén Hånell, Nurgül Özbek
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Cross-border e-commerce can enable smaller firms to quickly reach many foreign markets. This article examines how effectual market creation affects the international performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in cross-border e-commerce. Building upon effectuation theory, we suggest that firms can drive foreign market demand by creating new ways to interact and engage with customers in the digital space. Analysing a sample of 99 Swedish e-commerce SMEs, we find that effectual market creation has a positive effect on their international performance. We also find that this positive effect is enabled by insidership in international markets, illustrated by activities related to international marketing analytics and international networking. Through these findings, we contribute to theory development on the internationalisation of small digital firms.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-03-04T06:08:30Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211072999
Contextualising rural entrepreneurship – A strong structuration
perspective on gendered-local agency
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  Authors: Nermin Elkafrawi, Annie Roos, Deema Refai
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article employs Stones’ (2005) Strong Structuration Theory (SST) to contextualise rural entrepreneurship. Through shadowing a single case study of a woman entrepreneur from rural Sweden, we propose gendered-local agency as operationalisation of active agency in practice. While SST positions active agency as a property of agents, we demonstrate it is as a property that is intertwined with both agents and structure. Simultaneously enabled and constrained, gendered-local agency itself becomes contextualised within gender-related and locality-related rural-specific interplay that modifies, preserves and challenges rural structures. The article contributes to the literature on contextualising entrepreneurship through a structuration lens by signifying gendered-local agency as a manifestation of rural-specific interplay between contexts as environments (out there) and context as constructed (through entrepreneurs). This conceptualisation proposes everyday entrepreneurship as a demonstration of agency in action, thus setting a foundation for exploring entrepreneurship through the context-specific agent-structure interplay in the rural context and others.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-03-01T02:44:53Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211069851
Getting a Foot in the Door: Trade Credit Strategies and the Pursuit of
Entrepreneurial Internationalisation
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  Authors: Richard A Hunt, Mathew LA Hayward, Yue Song, David M Townsend, Maximilian Stallkamp
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Trade credit strategies – comprised of the approaches used by internationalising firms to set the payment terms and schedules for their customers – are one of the few levers available to new small firms to overcome the liability of outsidership. They are vital to entrepreneurial firms seeking to achieve international market growth in the context of scarce resources and limited knowledge of foreign markets and partners. Though under-explored and under-theorised to-date, trade credits may unlock material insights for predictive models of entrepreneurial growth. As such, our study develops and tests the notion that trade credits constitute an important mechanism for entrepreneurial firms to initiate goodwill and generate valuable referrals. However, our findings also suggest that while riskier trade credit strategies help first-time exporters combat exclusion from networks key to a firm’s ability to internationalise, the attendant risks often have a detrimental impact on long-term profitability and survival, thus creating a decision-making conundrum for growth-aspirants. Drawing upon a sample of 88,000 export transactions by 1040 small lumber firms from 52 countries, we advance theory and practice by showing how trade credit strategies shape both growth and performance.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-03-01T01:48:08Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426221078940
Immanent sensemaking by entrepreneurs and the interpretation of consumer
context
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  Authors: Laura Niemi, Pekka Stenholm, Henri Hakala, Jenni Kantola
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Contemporary research has highlighted entrepreneurial sensemaking as a dynamic, socially embedded action undertaken to reduce uncertainty, but scholars have yet to fully address the role of routine-like immanent sensemaking employed when entrepreneurs try to understand their task environment. Defined as a routinised way of making sense of how to proceed in novel situations, we investigate how entrepreneurs use immanent sensemaking as they continuously seek to make sense of their consumer context. Our study reveals that entrepreneurs absorb individual, social and cultural signals from consumers to support their judgement and action. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs use immanent sensemaking not only for unusual events but also construct multilevel frames to understand their customers as individual, social and cultural beings in their everyday encounters.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-02-01T04:15:01Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211061531
The impact of trust on social and financial capital acquisition: A
resource integration perspective in minority-owned entrepreneurial
organisations
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  Authors: Ronald L Pegram, Camelia L Clarke, James W Peltier, K Praveen Parboteeah
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  Although effective resource integration is a critical requisite for entrepreneurial success, the literature suggests there are crucial gaps for minority entrepreneurs. We examine how interracial distrust (ID), an indicator of the extent to which minority entrepreneurs distrust other races, is related to internal and social capital. We examine the relationships of such capitals on the willingness to borrow from banks and friends, and explore the link with firm performance. Using a sample of 276 primarily African American entrepreneurs, we find support for most of our hypotheses. We find that ID is negatively associated with external social capital and a willingness to borrow from banks. Surprisingly, we found that ID had a negative effect on internal social capital and a willingness to borrow from friends. We also found that internal and external social capital was positively related to firm performance. We discuss the implications of some of these surprising research findings as well as the policy implications.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-01-09T06:37:48Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211055300
Engaging symbiotic ecosystems to build community centred business models
for the BoP: Evidence from small social enterprises in East Africa
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  Authors: Andrea Sottini, Giacomo Ciambotti, David Littlewood
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  This article examines how small social enterprises (SSEs) in East Africa build business models for base of the pyramid (BoP) markets, through engaging symbiotic ecosystems. Through in-depth qualitative research, a three-stage process is identified. First, SSEs learn and become sensitised to the manifold challenges of building business models for BoP markets. Second, SSEs identify and connect with key BoP actors, weaving them together to create a symbiotic ecosystem and to overcome the aforementioned challenges. Third, SSEs harness this symbiotic ecosystem to deliver community-centred business models for the BoP. This research contributes to social entrepreneurship, small business, and BoP literatures, by shedding light on the challenges faced by SSEs working in the BoP, and through novel elaboration of how SSEs develop and interact with symbiotic ecosystems to surmount these challenges. It also provides important practical insights, for social entrepreneurs and social enterprise managers in Africa and elsewhere.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-01-08T02:27:44Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211059778
High growth episodes among R&D intensive firms. Evidence for Europe,
US and Japan
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  Authors: Luigi Aldieri, Vania Sena, Concetto Paolo Vinci
  First page: 742
  Abstract: International Small Business Journal, Ahead of Print.
  The purpose of this article is three-fold: first, it tests whether inter-industry R&D spillovers are positively associated with the likelihood of experiencing high growth episodes among R&D intensive firms in Europe, US and Japan; second, it tests whether such a relationship is conditional on their level of absorptive capacity (ACAP); third, it tests whether the acquisition of foreign patents please replace brackets with commas may trigger high growth episodes among a sub-set of R&D intensive firms. For the empirical analysis, we focus on R&D intensive manufacturing firms observed between 2002 and 2017, located in Europe, US and Japan. The empirical findings support the hypotheses suggesting that: a) inter-industry R&D spillovers are associated with the likelihood of experiencing high growth episodes; b) ACAP conditions the relationship between inter-industry R&D spillovers and the likelihood of experiencing high growth episodes and c) shares of foreign patents are positively associated with the likelihood of experiencing high growth episodes among high-tech R&D intensive firms.JEL codes: C41, L25, O33.
  Citation: International Small Business Journal
  PubDate: 2022-03-02T07:44:25Z
  DOI: 10.1177/02662426211070943