Micro-enterprise Growth Determinants: A Framework Study and Analysis

Abstract

Firm growth, a foundational topic of management research (Greve 2008; Nason, 2014; Bird and Zellweger, 2018), is broadly defined as the increase in a firm’s size from one point in time to another (Penrose, 1959; Chandler, 1962). Broad array of theories with fragmentation prevented comprehensive knowledge accumulation and theoretical development in this field (Nason, Brinckmann and Wiklund, 2012; Hewitt-dundas, 2017). Beyond the start-up and survival phases of the life of an enterprise, lies the potential for enterprise growth. The existing literature is highly fragmented as studies from psychology field focus on behaviour of the entrepreneurs (Begley and Boyd, 1987; Dana, 2017; Isaga, 2018), strategic research concentrates on the relationship between environment, business strategy and growth (McDougall et al., 1992; Fellnhofer, 2017; Reutzel et al., 2018). Economics researchers focus on the relation between growth and firm size (Audretsch et al., 2004; Serrasqueiro, et al., 2018). It leads us to conclude that there is no holistic view of it and all fields have grown in their own style.