Dissertation: Scaling orientation, strategic alignment, and the flexibility to adapt to shifting conditions support SMEs to achieve long-term success
Business growth has become the ultimate measure of entrepreneurial success, influencing everything from investment strategies to media headlines and academic research. While rapid expansion is often celebrated as the key to achievement, this focus overlooks the deeper complexities of how and why businesses grow. By prioritizing size and speed over substance, the obsession with growth risks ignoring the real challenges businesses face and the long-term sustained performance they need to thrive. The result? A narrow view that limits both their potential and broader impact.
Daria Hakola’s dissertation challenges long-held assumptions about what drives and results from business growth.
“Addressing three grand limitations in entrepreneurship research - such as the role of an entrepreneurial agency, the complexity of growth, and external factors like institutions - provides a more nuanced understanding of business performance”, says Hakola.
Focusing on SMEs, this dissertation challenges the growth-centric approach to entrepreneurship, revealing contradictory effects of entrepreneurial growth intentions on business performance. It shows the possibility that ambitious entrepreneurs may even harm their businesses and how entrepreneurial agency may lose its importance depending on the business goals in question. It highlights the role of institutional frameworks, environmental factors, and the selectivity of growth methods in shaping firm performance, moving beyond the narrow lens of growth. Finally, the research advocates for redefining success in entrepreneurship to include scaling orientation, efficiency, and adaptability.
The findings of this study call for a shift from growth-at-all-costs thinking to a balanced approach that considers internal strengths, strategic alignment, and societal impacts.
“By adopting sustainable scaling strategies and leveraging digital technologies, SMEs can achieve long-term success without overextending their growth potential.”
M.Sc.(Econ.) Daria Hakola defends the doctoral dissertation “Beyond Business Growth: Unpacking the Determinants and Limitations” on December 5th, 2024 at 12 in the Lea Pulkisen Sali (B431.1) of the Agora building at the Ģֱ. The opponent is Professor Daniel Pittino (Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University) and Custos Postdoctoral Researcher Mari Suoranta (Ģֱ).
The doctoral dissertation is held in English.
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