Entrepreneurial and Business Growth

CALL FOR PAPERS

Entrepreneurial and Business Growth

Guest Editors:
Claire Leitch and Frances Hill, School of Management and Economics, Queen's University
Helle Neergaard, Aarhus School of Business,

Executive Editor: Ray Bagby

OVERVIEW

It is widely accepted by academics and policy makers alike, that growing businesses have a key role to play in job creation, technological development/innovation and the regeneration of economically and socially deprived areas. Indeed, it is often assumed that there is a direct relationship between the growth of firms and economic growth. Yet there is increasing recognition that current understanding of entrepreneurial growth may be overly simplistic and that growth is a complex construct which has much too often been reduced to a choice between growing and not growing a business. Such a narrow conception of growth may be too restrictive and may mask the probable multi-faceted nature of the construct and ignore the possibility of alternative understandings. Moreover, due to the heterogeneity of firms and the plethora of variables which may influence growth, commentators have observed that from the research conducted to date little coherence is evident and no single theory of growth has emerged.

While much research in this area has already been conducted, the primary focus has been on quantification and measurement therefore, at the micro level, indicators of growth include variables such as sales, profit, turnover and numbers employed. Thus, the dominant research perspective has been positivist and quantitative in nature. Less attention has been paid to the complexities of growth as a process which would require the adoption of more adventurous methodological approaches. These would serve to complement quantitative investigations, and facilitate the in-depth investigation of complex sociological, perceptual, attitudinal and behavioural issues.

This special issue will publish leading-edge research on entrepreneurial and business growth. Literature reviews, empirical and theoretical papers from various disciplines (including both those in Management and other social sciences), and research that is conducted from a range of philosophical and methodological perspectives will be welcome. All units of analysis are appropriate.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• The meanings attached to growth by various stakeholders (for example, policy makers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, researchers) and the implications of these

• Growth and strategy

• Growth in differing contexts (for example, social enterprise, gender, family business, ethnic minorities)

• Measures of growth

• International perspectives on growth

• Types of growth (internal/external)

• Growth and stages of firm development (for example, at post start-up and in established firms)

• Impact of globalization

• Growth and gender

• Determinant of and constraints on growth

• Growth and learning

• Growth and risk

• Growth and innovation

• Growth and performance

Submissions

Authors should follow the Information for Contributors of Manuscripts as published in Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. Papers should be submitted to the special issue through Manuscript Central by 1 June 2008. All papers will be subject to the journal's normal double-blind review process.

Any queries about this issue should be addressed to:
Claire Leitch and Frances Hill, School of Management and Economics, Queen's University, Belfast, UK Tel: + 44289097 3683; e-mail: c.leitch@qub.ac.uk; f.hill@qub.ac.uk,

Helle Neergaard, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark. Tel: + 458948 6688; e-mail: hen@asb.dk