Purpose

Despite their economic significance, empirical evidence on the growth constraints facing micro-businesses as an important subset of small and medium enterprises remains scarce. At the same time, little consideration has hitherto been given to the context in which entrepreneurial activity occurs. The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically informed contextual understanding of micro-business growth, beyond firm-level constraints.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on 50 in-depth interviews with stakeholders and micro-business owner–manager entrepreneurs (OMEs henceforth) in a peripheral post-industrial place (PPIP henceforth).

Findings

The paper shows that, beyond firm-level constraints generated by their OME-centric nature, there are “additional costs” for micro-businesses operating in PPIPs, specifically limited access to higher-skilled labour, a more challenging, “closed” business environment and negative outward perceptions stemming from place stigmatisation. All of these “additional costs” can serve to stymie OMEs' growth ambition.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is based on a limited number of interviews conducted in one region in England. However, the contextualisation of the findings through a focus on PPIPs provides valuable insights and enables analytical generalisation.

Originality/value

The article develops a context-sensitive model of micro-business growth constraints, one that goes beyond the constraints inherent in the nature of micro-businesses and is sensitive to their local (socio-institutional) operating context. The implications serve to advance both how enterprise in the periphery is theorised and how it is addressed by policymakers and business intermediaries to support the growth of micro-businesses.

中文翻译：

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成为外围设备的“额外成本”：对微企业的增长制约因素建立背景理解

目的

尽管它们具有经济意义，但仍缺乏关于作为微型企业的重要子集的微型企业所面临的增长制约的经验证据。同时，迄今为止，几乎没有考虑到企业家活动发生的环境。本文的目的是在企业层面的约束之外，以经验为基础的对微观企业增长的背景理解。

设计/方法/方法

本文利用在后工业化周边地区（PPIP之后）对利益相关者和微型企业所有者-经理企业家（以下简称OME）进行的50次深度访谈。

发现

该文件显示，除了以OME为中心的性质所产生的公司层面的约束之外，在PPIP中运营的微型企业还存在“额外成本”，特别是获得更高技能的劳动力，更具挑战性的“封闭式”商业环境的机会有限。以及因地方污名化而产生的负面外向感。所有这些“额外成本”可以阻碍OMEs的增长雄心。

研究局限/意义

该论文基于在英格兰一个地区进行的有限数量的采访。但是，通过将重点放在PPIP上来对结果进行上下文化可以提供有价值的见解，并可以进行分析概括。

创意/价值

本文开发了一种上下文敏感的微型企业增长约束模型，该模型超越了微型企业本质上固有的约束，并且对它们的本地（社会机构）运营环境敏感。其含义有助于促进外围企业的理论化以及决策者和商业中介机构如何解决该问题，以支持微企业的发展。