Scaling sustainability in businesses with a post-growth orientation: An exploratory empirical study
研究了35家后增长导向的中小企业如何通过四种方式（增强、扩展、桥梁、合作）扩大其积极的社会生态影响，为私营企业参与后增长经济提供实证依据。
To avoid negative social and ecological consequences associated with growth-based economics, businesses with a post-growth orientation intentionally forgo scaling for profit maximization and instead seek to scale positive socio-ecological impacts. This study investigates 35 small and medium-sized businesses (33 private and 2 cooperatives) with a post-growth orientation to examine how they strive to scale their positive socio-ecological impact. Our findings reveal four distinct scaling approaches: Enhancement, Expansion, Bridging, and Collaboration. We provide a typology of these four approaches and explain how they can be interlinked to create synergy. Our study shows how private businesses can participate in creating a post-growth economy, thus broadening the scope of previous post-growth research that has focused on other organizational forms such as social enterprises, benefit corporations, and cooperatives.