{"title":"Body shifted, soul not: migrant identity, social inclusion, and small business success","authors":"Serghei Musaji, Qiong Wu, Julio De Castro","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01291-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01291-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The shapes of knowledge spillovers: the AC-KS model","authors":"Gustavo Barboza,Alessandro Braga,Aubin Duchier","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01286-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01286-5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why do some regions achieve higher levels of economic development while others do not? This paper introduces the Agglomeration-Clustering-Knowledge Spillovers (AC-KS) model, a conceptual framework for better understanding the nature of such differences. We argue that the missing piece of this puzzle is the process by which localized anchors ignite dynamic triangular forces between agglomeration, clustering, and knowledge spillovers, setting in motion a life cycle of first- and second-generation knowledge spillover effects. In this framework, we conceptualize that the spread and positive effects related to knowledge spillovers are governed by the strength-length-completeness triad of the triangularity relationship among agglomeration, clustering, and knowledge spillovers. These interactions then result in conical shapes whose base area and height, respectively, capture decaying effects of geographic reach and local intensity of knowledge-spillover entrepreneurship. The model’s originality lies in its geometric characterization of knowledge spillovers and in integrating fragmented literatures on the relationship among agglomeration, clusters, and knowledge spillovers. Its value is both theoretical and practical: the framework predicts when benefits concentrate or diffuse, offering diagnostic guidance for balancing reach (base) and intensity (height) across the knowledge spillover lifecycle stages of spark, expansion, and decline. ","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149210787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Knowing when to quit: experience, binding financial constraints, and withdrawal from new venture creation","authors":"Scott Shane","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01281-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01281-w","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why do people quit the startup process before a business is formed? We treat withdrawal from new venture creation as a test of Evans and Jovanovic’s (1989) model of liquidity constraints at the pre-entry margin. In the model, constraints bind when desired capital deployment exceeds what personal finances can support. We test three predictions with Entrepreneurship in the Population (EPOP) Survey data from 2023 to 2025, comparing 3980 responses from continuing nascent entrepreneurs with 6903 responses from people who considered or pursued a business and then stopped. Experienced founders report deploying more than twice the startup capital of novices. The association between pre-existing financial constraints and stopping is stronger for experienced founders. The experience gap in stopping odds is large at one financial constraint, marginal at two, and no longer detectable at three. A further implication, that funding-rationed seekers stop at higher rates, is directionally positive but not robust across years. The results are consistent with liquidity constraints binding at the pre-entry margin and help reconcile weak wealth-entry relationships with evidence that constraints matter.","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149088735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephan Gerschewski,João J. Ferreira,Ana Joana Candeias Fernandes,Jong Min Lee
{"title":"A bibliometric assessment of hidden champions research: Mapping an evolving field","authors":"Stephan Gerschewski,João J. Ferreira,Ana Joana Candeias Fernandes,Jong Min Lee","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01287-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01287-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149088736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"High-growth firms and their habitats","authors":"Martin Andersson,Johan Karlsson,Johan P Larsson","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01289-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01289-2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We examine how the geography of entrepreneurial quality differs from the geography of entrepreneurial quantity by analyzing spatial variation in high-growth firms (HGFs) across Swedish municipalities during 2002–2022. Using longitudinal firm-level data matched to survey measures of local business climate, we compare the determinants of start-up rates and firm scaling. Standard supply- and demand-side factors — population size, human capital and economic structure — are associated with both outcomes, though not uniformly. In contrast, local business climate, capturing entrepreneurs’ assessments of how local authorities function in practice, is a substantially stronger predictor of HGFs than of start-ups. The association is economically meaningful and varies with local economic structure. The findings point to a micro-level mechanism that may link local framework conditions to aggregate outcomes: interactions between growth-oriented firms and local institutions during scaling. These patterns suggest that local institutional conditions are related not only to how many firms are created, but to which firms are able to grow.","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149088737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Institutional employment protection and entrepreneurial entry: evidence from a natural experiment","authors":"Fenglong Xiao","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01288-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01288-3","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"96 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impatience and entrepreneurship","authors":"Virgilio Failla, Chris Dawson","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01285-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01285-6","url":null,"abstract":"Entrepreneurship research has long argued that some of the traits that encourage individuals to start businesses may also undermine subsequent performance. Using a large nationally representative longitudinal survey from the U.K., we test this proposition by investigating the role of survey-measured impatience in both the decision to leave paid employment for business ownership and subsequent earnings outcomes. While impatient employees search less intensively for entrepreneurial opportunities, once an opportunity is identified, they are more willing to accept it than to wait for better opportunities to emerge. The effect of impatience on entry into business ownership is therefore ambiguous. In contrast, theory predicts an unambiguously negative effect of impatience on entrepreneurial performance. A lower selectivity threshold—which drives the eagerness to accept lower-quality opportunities—combined with lower investment and planning intensity, suggests that impatience depresses realized earnings. Consistent with these predictions, we find that impatience decreases entry into business ownership and, controlling for earnings in paid employment, also decreases realized earnings. Taken together, these results suggest that, in entrepreneurship, “patience is a virtue.”","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yamlaksira S. Getachew, Michael Abebe, Alexander Glosenberg
{"title":"How ethnic- and community-based informal institutions shape entrepreneurial resource acquisition in Ethiopia","authors":"Yamlaksira S. Getachew, Michael Abebe, Alexander Glosenberg","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01274-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01274-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"464 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Income inequality and entrepreneurial motivations: A cross-country analysis of the moderating roles of trade openness and individual capital","authors":"Sujata Kar, Pooja Kapoor","doi":"10.1007/s11187-026-01284-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01284-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21803,"journal":{"name":"Small Business Economics","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}