The notion of growth: A research agenda for SMEs and entrepreneurs

Academics within the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) sector have been working towards identifying the factors that are impediments to the growth and development of SMEs around the world. This article attempts to understand the ‘notion of growth’ as experienced by SMEs in Wales and East India (particularly West Bengal), by exploring the narratives of entrepreneurs within those regions (see images 1 and 2 below). Our research is primarily qualitative in nature and is based on a semi-structured interview approach in Wales, and on narrative inquiry in India. We believe that such a methodology is critical in understanding the notion of growth, and our method involved interviewing established entrepreneurs in order to ascertain their multiple perspectives on growth. We assert the importance in Government policy formulation of understanding and using the language of growth as defined by the ‘context’ of the entrepreneurs. Our research approach: briefly, our research involved the collection and interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative data. In Wales, we worked with six gender-balanced focus groups, each consisting of eight business-owners who represent a range of MSMEs across the regions. Group discussions were augmented by in-depth 1:1 interviews. We also conducted a comprehensive, questionnaire-based pan-Wales telephone survey. In West Bengal, we engaged in a narrative inquiry, derived from 1:1 conversations and field notes, with a group of eight male entrepreneurs. Requests for confidentiality were a particular issue here. We selected the West Bengal Chamber of Commerce and CREDAI – (the Bengal branch of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India), as well as other forums that we mention
throughout this article, according to their relevance to thematic analysis of the data we collected. If you would like a more detailed account of our sampling and research methods, please feel free to contact Nihar Amoncar.

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