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The Big Green Sell Out : Setting a Research Agenda to Explore Growth Strategies of Ethical Businesses
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2011-08-15
Author(s)
Nazarkina, Liudmila
Abstract
This paper proposes a research agenda to explore and explain growth strategies of entrepreneurial firms. More specifically, I focus on ethical businesses in the consumer goods sector, or companies that aim to achieve positive social and environmental impact while maintaining their profitability. After providing an overview of mergers and acquisitions and venture capital deals in the ethical consumer goods industry in the UK and USA in 1990-2010, I suggest that future research should address the following three questions: (1) What factors influence the choice between growth strategies pursued by ethical businesses? (2) How do ethical businesses with high growth intentions finance their growth? And finally (3) What are the performance implications of the chosen growth strategies in terms of business and mission continuity? For each of these questions I present what is already known from theory and existing empirical research about growth of entrepreneurial firms, how applicable this knowledge is to ethical businesses in the consumer goods sector, and what remains unexplored. Finding answer to these questions could benefit not only leaders of ethical businesses, but also any type of entrepreneurial firm with high growth ambitions since very little is still known about how exactly firms grow.
Language
English
Keywords
Firm growth
ethical businesses
mergers and acquisitions
venture capital
discrete choice framework
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Book title
West meets East: Enlightening, Balancing, Transcending
Publisher
Academy of Management
Publisher place
New York
Volume
Paper Session 606
Start page
39
Event Title
71st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 2011
Event Location
San Antonio, Texas
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
195000