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Focusing on the family as the central unit of analysis, the purpose of this paper is to examine how entrepreneurial families, with more than one owner/entrepreneur, utilise social capital in a challenging institutional environment.

The empirical focus of this paper is the institutional context of Mexico and how it impacts on entrepreneurial families and their access to social capital. The authors employ an in-depth qualitative approach to understand entrepreneurs’ perspective as being part of an entrepreneurial family. A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with multiple respondents of each entrepreneurial family.

This study shows that social capital allows members in the entrepreneurial family to access a wider pool of resources to utilise to benefit their ventures, while also helping them to operate in a challenging institutional environment. It also illustrates how social capital is used to overcome institutional asymmetries.

This paper contributes to research by examining the links between institutions and entrepreneurial families through a focus on social capital. It provides a nuanced understanding of how the entrepreneurial family serves as an intermediary through which social capital gives family members access to resources and capabilities to enable their pursuit of entrepreneurial endeavours and overcome the institutional challenges they face in Mexico.

Micro-businesses account for a large majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, they remain comparatively under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the extant literature on growth challenges and to distinguish growth constraints facing micro-businesses as a specific subset of SMEs from those facing larger SMEs.

The study consists of a systematic review of 59 peer-reviewed articles on SME growth.

Micro-businesses distinguish themselves from larger SMEs by being owner-manager entrepreneur (OME) centric and are constrained by a tendency to be growth-averse, underdeveloped capabilities in key business areas, underdeveloped OME capabilities, and often inadequate business support provision.

The use of keywords, search strings, and specific databases may have limited the number of papers identified as relevant by the review. However, the findings are valuable for understanding micro-businesses as a subset of SMEs, providing directions for future research and generating implications for policy to support the scaling up of micro-businesses.

The review provides a renewed foundation for academic analysis of micro-business growth, highlighting how micro-businesses are distinct from larger SMEs. At present, no literature review on this topic has previously been published and the study develops a number of theoretical and policy implications.

This paper aims to examine the influence of formal and informal institutional quality on country-level variations in foreign equity shares in transition economies (TEs).

Drawing on institutional theory and transaction cost theory, this paper examines the influence of formal and informal institutional quality on country-level variations in foreign equity shares in TEs. The authors use a two-step empirical strategy, identifying clusters of explanatory variables and running generalized least squares random effect estimations to test for the influence of explanatory and control variables on foreign equity shares.

Foreign equity share is positively affected by informal institutions and negatively by formal institutions. However, when control for stage of transition we find that the the presence of informal institutions in more rapidly or advanced transforming economies negatively influences foreign equity shares. Complex infrastructure discourages foreign equity shareholdings, and foreign companies use informal practices to overcome unfavourable host country conditions. Government size has a negative effect, and gross domestic product per capita positively affects foreign equity shares.

The study is the new groundwork for the re-enactment of a fruitful discussion on foreign equity. The study has practical implications for managers, too – managers of foreign-owned firms operating in weakly installed institutional environments should carefully analyse the entry strategies because of the high presence of informal institutions. Furthermore, managers could understand the various facilitation roles of informal institutions in any firm internationalisation effort to arrive at optimal ownership holdings for better internationalisation performance. Although the study is based on a sample of transition countries, the findings have implications for other emerging economies’ contexts sharing similar institutional settings.

This study provides a unique empirical investigation and evidence based on country-level indicators on the effect of formal and informal institutions on foreign equity shares holdings in TEs, reinforcing the importance of impacts of both the formal and informal dimensions on ownership decisions of foreign investors.

The aim of this paper is to unpack the nature of business innovation and understand the impact on regional innovation and competitiveness.

The paper is based on a qualitative study of Advanced Manufacturing and Advanced Materials businesses in the Sheffield City Region (UK). Interviews were conducted with 23 firms in exploring how innovation in the firm translates to innovation-led regional economic growth.

The paper demonstrates that there is a tendency of owner managers to focus on innovation in terms of the development of new products, processes and/or services. Many of the businesses interviewed were technologically innovative, yet there was little evidence of wider business model innovation. This, the authors conclude, stymies regional innovation and with it regional economic growth.

This study is based on a case study of the Sheffield City Region and is not generalizable, but offers insights into the nature of business model innovation which are valuable in generating questions for further research.

The paper highlights the need to think of innovation in broader terms and the scope of business model innovation to not only improve the performance of firms but also regional economic growth.

Business model innovation is a growing domain of the literature, and this paper highlights how narrow interpretations of innovation may serve to limit growth business growth, and with it regional economic growth.

This article contributes to the debate by arguing that addressing the core concept underpinning accelerationism and helps to unpack a number of key assumptions on the nature of capitalism, identifying areas offering new and productive insights into organisation and organisations. The scope of the article will be to examine the accelerationist literature, in particular, the core principles first emerging in the prehistory of accelerationism and further developed through the various waves and iterations of the concept.

The paper offers a conceptual approach to accelerationism. It develops a critical literature review and uses a process of exemplification to highlight insights for organisation and organisations.

The paper concludes that the underpinnings of accelerationism are not well understood and thus much of the critique misses the more intriguing and interesting insights from the cluster of ideas at its core.

The scope of the paper is to provide a coherent and accessible way to navigate through a complex and demanding series of concepts. The value of the paper is that it helps to identify potential insights relevant to management, marketing and organisational scholars.

This chapter reviews and critiques the recent evolution of place-based entrepreneurship policy in the United Kingdom, in particular the governance of policies targeted at the regional level to promote economic development and competitiveness. The focus of the chapter is the evolution occurring from 1997, when the Labour government came to power, through to the period leading to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, which came to power in 2010.

A review and critique of key academic and policy-based literature.

The chapter shows the way in which governance systems and policies aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship have permeated regional development policy at a number of levels in the United Kingdom. In general, the overarching themes of enterprise policy are similar across the regions, but the difference in governance arrangements demonstrates how emphasis and delivery varies.

Place-based enterprise policy needs long-term commitment, with interventions required to survive changes in approaches to governance if they are to prove effective; something which has been far from the case in recent years. Whilst the analysis is drawn from the case of the United Kingdom, the lessons with regard to the connection between regional modes of governance and effective policy implementation are ones that resonate across other nations that are similarly seeking to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial regions.

Evidence of ongoing disparities in regional economic development and competitiveness, linked to differences in regional business culture, suggest the continuance of market failure, whereby leading regions continue to attract resources and stimulate entrepreneurial opportunities at the expense of less competitive regions.

The time period covered by the chapter – 1997 onwards – forms an historic era with regard to changing regional governance and enterprise policy in the United Kingdom, with the emergence – and subsequent demise – of regional development agencies (RDAs) across English regions, as well as the introduction of regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which were handed certain powers for economic and enterprise development from the UK central government.

Government intervention has increasingly identified deprived communities as a key focus for enterprise support. The purpose of this paper is to examine attitudes and perceptions to enterprise support in a deprived community in the UK city of Leeds.

A survey of 142 entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, and 18 follow‐up in‐depth interviews with entrepreneurs, were conducted with people living in the study area. The survey examined the entrepreneurial activity of members of the community, and usage of enterprise support.

The paper finds that certain forms of enterprise support in deprived communities may actually discourage entrepreneurship. Also, where entrepreneurial ventures are supported they tend to operate in activities relating to generic trades with low entry barriers, with many enterprises having little actual or perceived requirement for external support, with it being likely that these would have been established with or without support.

A potential limitation of the study is that it is restricted to a case study of deprived communities in one particular city.

Increased investment in the supply of enterprise support may not lead to increased levels of entrepreneurship, with support that aims to engage with people who have never considered starting a business, or do not have the skills required to launch and grow a venture, is unlikely to be cost‐effective given their low growth potential.

The results of the research are potentially applicable to other deprived communities, and provide lessons for policy relating to the promotion of entrepreneurship.