CFP: Entrepreneurial and Business Growth (ETP)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

Call for Papers - Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice
Entrepreneurial and Business Growth
Deadline: 1 June 2008

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 at qub.ac.uk; f.hill at qub.ac.uk, Helle Neergaard, Aarhus School of
Business, Denmark. Tel: + 458948 6688; e-mail: hen at asb.dk

More info at http://www.baylor.edu/business/ETP/index.php?id=24905