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There has been a plethora of research works about entrepreneurship in the last two decades since enterprises are now treated as one the major driving forces, if not the most influential, of global economy as a whole. To quote Filion ( 2021 ): “The term ‘entrepreneur’ is a French word derived from the verb ‘entreprendre’, which means to do or to undertake. It can be divided into two parts, ‘entre’, meaning ‘between’, and ‘preneur’ meaning ‘taker’. Literally, then, an entre- preneur is a ‘between-taker’, or ‘go- between.” On the other hand, the term ‘enterprise’ has originated from ‘emprise’ (Root Latin word: Imprisia ) which refers to something bold, firm, and daring (Vérin, 1982 ; pp. 31–33). This research paper has attempted to construct a structural model to establish a regressionary relationship between the regressand enterprise growth, and the regressors bankruptcy, venture capital investment, and enterprise life span respectively by using a mix of empirical panel data and time series study on 5 sample European countries for the time period of 10 years (2011–2020). The derived statistical results proved to be a mixed bag of some interesting findings which could be used as the ‘stepping-stones’ for further research.

Business incubators (BIs) have gradually evolved to focus increasingly on the development of networks and network functions. However, existing literature indicates that much ambiguity remains regarding the importance and role of cooperation within the incubator networks. In particular, few studies divide incubator networks into internal and external networks to explore how these networks influence the enterprise growth performance (EGP). Based on the social network and organizational learning theories, we analyze the role of entrepreneurial learning (exploratory and exploitative) in the relationship between internal and external networks and EGP in dynamic environments. Through a multiple regression analysis of survey data from 205 incubatees in 14 Chinese business incubators, we find that the BIs’ internal and external networks positively impact EGP and exploratory and exploitative learning mediate the relationship between them. Moreover, when incubatees are in a highly dynamic environment, internal networks more positively affect exploitative learning, while external networks inhibit exploratory learning. Finally, we discuss the study’s implications.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of executives’ overseas education and work experience on enterprise digital as executives’ overseas background is critical to the development of enterprises. It also explored the mediating role of enterprise digital transformation on the relationship between executives’ overseas background and enterprise growth. Design/methodology/approach Chinese A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges for the period 2018–2020 were analyzed using regression analysis and bootstrapping to verify hypothesized relationships. Findings Executives’ overseas study and work experience both enhanced enterprise digital transformation significantly, thus improving enterprise growth. The level of employee education moderated the mediating role proposed in the theoretical model. Moreover, the promoting effect of executives’ overseas background on enterprise digital transformation was more significant for non-state-owned enterprises and those in eastern China. Practical implications The findings provide reference for the formulation and optimization of companies’ human resource structure and have implications on the improvement of enterprise digital transformation and enterprise growth. Originality/value This study explored the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation at the microlevel of corporate human capital, thereby providing microlevel empirical evidence for research on the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation. Its findings shed light on the mechanism and context under which executives with overseas backgrounds may enhance enterprise digital transformation and growth.

PurposeThis paper aims at identifying the major obstacles to business enterprise in an emerging economy and how these obstacles are associated with different characteristics of the enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study relied on the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on Ghana and applied binary and ordinal probit regression techniques to estimate the associations between the characteristics of the enterprises and the identified obstacles. Significance testing of the associations is also conducted.FindingsThe five main obstacles perceived by most of the enterprises in the study are access to finance, electricity, access to land, customs and trade regulations and tax rates. These obstacles are associated in different ways to growth rate (high vs low growth), scale (small and medium vs large), age, size of employees, the experience of the top manager and ownership (wholly domestic vs foreign ownership).Research limitations/implicationsAs a cross-sectional study focusing on Ghana, the findings are informative about the major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy; however, the ecological validity of these findings may be limited to factors specific to Ghana.Originality/valueGiven the representativeness of the Enterprise Survey, policymakers can rely on these findings to formulate useful policies to promote the operations of business enterprises.

We study how the quality of local business environments helps explain growth outcomes of micro- and small enterprise microfinance clients by drawing on long-term nationwide administrative data and a policy shock in Cambodia. The staggered launch of special economic zones, which we link to positive shocks to the business environment on both the demand and supply side, leads to significantly increased employment in micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) located in these special economic zones (SEZs), compared to enterprises in contextually similar districts that are unexposed to an SEZ. Key channels explaining the improved growth outcomes include expanded access to external markets for the enterprises’ goods and services, more dynamic labor environments, and improved credit terms and conditions. To broaden the relevance of our findings, we combine data from prominent empirical studies on microfinance and demonstrate how related business conditions identified in the enterprise growth literature help explain differences in client business outcomes found in their results. Policy implications are that a smaller but influential segment of microfinance borrowers significantly benefit from opportunities provided by improved local business environments and that governments and lenders can play active roles in facilitating the necessary improvements for such MSEs.Plain English SummaryFinancial access may not be fulfilling its real potential in low-income settings, unless coupled with the right opportunities in the business environment for micro- and small enterprises. We use Cambodia’s special economic zones as a policy shock to study how the quality of local business environments help explain micro- and small enterprise microfinance clients’ growth. We find that the SEZs generate large increases in employment for microfinance borrowers for both micro- and small enterprises. These increases are concentrated in locations where SEZs expand access to local markets and where there are more dynamic labor environments. The SEZs also lead the microfinance lender to improve credit terms, which contribute notably to improved enterprise outcomes. To broaden the relevance of our findings, we demonstrate how related sub-national business environment factors help explain different borrower outcomes found in extant studies that measure microfinance impacts. Policy implications are that an important subset of microfinance borrowers is able to seize opportunities provided by local business environments, and that national and subnational governments can play active roles in facilitating such improved business environments for micro and small enterprises.

This paper studies the investment situation, investment demand, and identification of development trends of non-state enterprises in Hanoi, Vietnam, using the partially adjusted demand model and enterprise identification theory as research approaches. The results show that business efficiency, enterprise growth, and enterprise size are the main factors affecting the choice of capital structure for Hanoi non-state enterprises. Due to capital constraints, most of the machinery and equipment of non-state enterprises in Hanoi, Vietnam, have a long usage age. The investment demand of non-state enterprises depends more on revenue growth than on the investment scale of previous years. The long-term and short-term investment elasticity are 2.55 and 2.18, respectively, corresponding to the adjustment coefficient δ= 0.8584. Finally, the research results show that the non-state enterprises in Hanoi, Vietnam, have shown slight signs of development or growth. The main factor contributing to the growth of non-state enterprises is the scale of employment rather than investment accumulation. Through the analysis, the paper comes to the following important conclusions: The factors, total assets, total number of employees, labour qualifications, input supply, business sector, level of competition in the market, and level of risk are factors affecting the business results in terms of revenue and profit of non-state enterprises in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Small and micro enterprises (SMEs) make important contributions to economic development, innovation, and employment in every country. The increasingly strict environmental regulations have become a global trend, but the empirical literature that evaluates the impacts of environmental regulations on the SMEs’ growth based on their observational data is extremely rare. This study aims to investigate how city-level environmental regulations in China affect the SMEs’ growth, with a focus on identifying lag effects, heterogeneous impacts across regions/enterprise types, and the mediating roles of technological innovation and policy support, using unbalanced panel data from 2007 to 2016. Using a dynamic panel model and entropy-weighted assessment, the results show the following: (1) Stricter environmental regulations significantly impede SMEs’ growth, with this effect persisting for up to two years. Robustness tests confirm the stability of these findings. (2) Despite the overall negative impact, our analysis reveals that environmental regulations can stimulate SMEs’ growth by promoting technological innovation and increasing policy support. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the regulatory effects vary by region, ownership structure, and tax status, with the most adverse impacts observed in private firms, small-scale taxpayers, and businesses outside the Yangtze River Economic Belt. These findings highlight the need for differentiated regulatory approaches to balance environmental objectives with SMEs’ growth. The study is limited by its focus on data from 2007 to 2016, not considering recent policy shifts, and may have limited generalizability to economies with decentralized environmental governance.

With increasing market competition and the arrival of technological innovation, the automobile-manufacturing industry faces great changes. In this situation, the quality of internal control becomes an important part that affects the growth and development of enterprises. According to the theories of internal control and enterprise growth, this paper selects data of Chinese listed-companies in the automobile manufacturing industry to analyse the relationship between the internal control index and enterprise growth. Further, it verifies the research conclusion using multiple regression analysis that the improvement of internal control quality can play a positive role in promoting the growth of automobile manufacturing enterprises.

Innovation in green technology is an efficient approach to reducing carbon emissions and achieving energy conservation, which is essential for fostering sustainable and green economic development. Even though the development of eco-friendly technologies is accelerating, the grasp of how political ties affect firms’ adoption of green technologies remains hazy. This paper examines the effect of a firm’s total political embeddedness (government ownership and political connections) along with the influencing mechanisms by employing a panel fixed effect regression approach on a dataset of Chinese A-share enterprises operating in pollution-intensive industries spanning 2012 to 2021. The findings offer conclusive evidence that political embeddedness encourages the enterprises’ development of green technologies and boosts their output of innovation. In addition, mechanism analysis reveals that companies’ political embedding influences their green innovation behavior through environmental disclosure. Moreover, board gender diversity and company growth rate are found to reinforce the impact of political embeddedness on green innovation. Besides expanding the current research on green innovation and corporate political involvement, the findings also provide important policy recommendations for the sustainable development of companies in emerging markets.

Eco-innovation practices can encourage sustainable development, specifically in emerging economies. This study examines the factors that can influence the eco-innovation practices of green firms listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of China, by investigating whether they exert a single core impact or how they can be combined to exert different effects. This study conducts dynamic qualitative comparative analysis on the panel dataset of 30 firms listed from 2013 to 2022. Results show that a single factor cannot drive high sustainability; rather, four configurations of factors can contribute to sustainability: (1) eco-innovation practices, coupled with technological capability and market dynamics; (2) technological capability and market dynamics; (3) eco-innovation practices, with technological capability and knowledge and skills in green practices; and (4) organizational leadership and vision. The coherence of the configurations reached its peak around 2015, when China transitioned to high-quality economic growth. The results are important for policymakers and practitioners, indicating that a multifaceted strategy combining fiscal support, technical assistance, educational programs, and market expansion initiatives can encourage green entrepreneurship development in developing countries. The policy implications presented in this study are important for sustainable development.