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Effective growth paths for SMEs

How firms grow forms a key question in the research on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on a survey amongst 1,535 SMEs, we show that the presence of growth capability factors, such as, innovation capacity, financing capacity and human capital, offers inadequate explanation for differ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wakkee, Ingrid
Other Authors: Veen, Marijke Van Der., Eurlings, Willo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Journals of Entrepreneurship 2015
Online Access:http://library.ediindia.ac.in:8181/xmlui/handle/123456789/2259
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100 |a Wakkee, Ingrid 
245 |a Effective growth paths for SMEs  |c Wakkee, Ingrid. 
260 |c 2015  |b The Journals of Entrepreneurship 
300 |a 169 - 185 
520 |a How firms grow forms a key question in the research on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on a survey amongst 1,535 SMEs, we show that the presence of growth capability factors, such as, innovation capacity, financing capacity and human capital, offers inadequate explanation for differences in the level of growth between SMEs in a specific period of time. The utilisation of different growth paths however does seem to elucidate differences between low and high growth. Remarkably, we found that growth paths that are most commonly used by SMEs (market penetration and increasing efficiency) hardly lead to growth. Rather growth paths that are infrequently utilised like setting up a new additional venture and entering foreign markets lead to significantly higher growth levels. It seems however that these growth paths are not attainable for SMEs due to the more extensive investments required. Increasing the firms’ brand awareness was found to be the only path to growth that was both used frequently and that yields actual growth. Therefore, investing in this path to growth seems to be a sensible investment choice for SMEs that want to grow. 
700 |a Veen, Marijke Van Der.,  
700 |a Eurlings, Willo 
773 |a The Journal of Entrepreneurship  |d Sep 
856 |u http://library.ediindia.ac.in:8181/xmlui/handle/123456789/2259 
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