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Maria Tunberg of SLU on the growth of rural businesses
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Approaching rural firm growth
– A literature review
Maria Tunberg, PhD student [email protected]
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Why?
Firm growth the solution to rural depletion
BUT
Firm growth studies focusing on urban contexts
Complex phenomenon
Aim
• Investigate the extent and content of rural firm growth literature
• Identify and describe approaches to firm growth
• Identify and describe themes in rural firm growth literature
Conceptual synopsis
• Output
– Outcome-based quantitative indicators (e.g. Delmar et al., 2003)
• Process
– ”How” rahter than”how much” (e.g McKelvie & Wiklund, 2010)
• Context
– Inevitably interrelated with the context (e.g. Korsgaard & Anderson, 2011)
Method
Literature review
– Systematic search 200 peer reviewed articles
– Qualitative assessment 50 peer reviewed articles
– Classification according to:
• Journal/year/author etc
• Approach
• Method
Classification
Output Process Context
Focus on the outcome of
growth without any deeper
reflection on either how
growth works or what effects
the surroundings of the
growing firm may have.
Focus on how growth
works and any
quality, tool, or
technique that may
facilitate or hinder the
firm’s growth
trajectory.
Focus on the
surroundings of the
growing firm and how
they may affect the
firm’s growth
trajectory.
Results: Research area/journal
Research areaNo. of
articles
Agriculture and business economics 2
Business economics12
Business economics and public administration 11
Business economics and social sciences 1
Business economics and urban studies1
Geography2
Government, law and social sciences1
Public administration9
Social sciences 3
Sociology7
Urban studies1
(9) ERD
(8) Rural studies
(4) Sociologia ruralis
(3) JBV
(2) Services industries
Results: Time/approach
Results: Method/appoach
Results: Research area/approach
Results: Theme 1(3)
• Relationship between the entrepreneur’s and/or firm’s characteristics and firmperformance1
• Relationship between structural characteristics and firm performance2
• Funding3
• Diversification and multifunctionality4
• Social capital and networks5
• Embeddedness6
Results: Theme 2(3)
1. Linear model for predicting business success in terms of employment
growth. Results indicated a positive correlation between the entrepreneur’s
age, management experience, industry experience, and environmental
scanning practices, and business success (Box et al., 1994).
2. Insufficient state assistance negatively influence firm growth
(Ryglova, 2007).
3. Rural firms are less able to attract equity capital than urban firms
(Rubin, 2010).
Results: Theme 3(3)
4. Goals influencing farmers’ decisions to diversify their businesses (Barbieri
and Mahoney, 2009).
5. Link between social capital and firm performance, emphasizing the
possibility of compensating for a lack of social capital by cohesion with other
entrepreneurs (Aarstad et al., 2010).
6. Embeddedness positively affects business performance in different
societies (Kalantaridis and Bika, 2006).
Results: Theme/approach/time
Conclusion
• 6 themes identified
• 3 approaches identified
– Output
– Process
– Context
• No explicit discussion on choice of approach
• Primarily quantitative output papers
• Request for process and context oriented studies with
qualitative, longitudinal data
Rurality = setting
Contribution
… to the firm growth literature and to research focusing on rural settings.
• Articulating taken-for-granted assumptions
• Identifying context as a potential key component
Extras…
Method
Keywords related to
entrepreneurship
Keywords related to
growth
Keywords related to
firms
Keywords related to
rurality
Entrepreneur* Growth* Business* Rural*
Develop* Firm* Peripher*
Perform* Compan*
Success* Venture*
Establishment*
Enterprise*
Organization*
Corporation*
