Edward Elgar Publishing A Narrative Approach to Business Growth

Mona Ericson conceptualizes business growth using a participatory narrative approach, adopting story-like representations of growth activity. This approach emphasizes the use of description, conceptualization, knowledge sharing and interpretation. It connects the subject and the researcher allowing the latter to better understand the actual practice of growing a business, while also extending the study to the novice and general reader alike. The book aims to open up previously marginalized perspectives in research on growth through this incoporation of storytelling-one of the most fundamental features of human life. Thus, the concepts of business growth and entrepreneurial activity described in this book are brought to life for the student, scholar and reader in a way that more conventional analyses cannot achieve. The author also uses the concept of `plot' as a means to interconnect practitioners' growth-related activities and concomitant changes. The firm becomes a living and evolving concept rather than a singular unit to be studied. A Narrative Approach to Business Growth offers a detailed study that illustrates the value of this increasingly important approach to the study of business growth. The rich, empirically oriented material in this book allows the reader to make sense of, learn about and vicariously experience a variety of growth activities and their dynamic relationships. Scholars and students of business growth, entrepreneurship and strategy will find this book compelling and eye-opening. About the Author Mona Ericson, Professor Emerita of Strategy and Organization and CeFEO Affiliated Professor, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden