Longitudinal research in micro- and small-sized enterprises reveals the need for integration of entrepreneurial literature to transform business for good in practice

The research reveals how micro- and small-sized enterprises in practice can transform business for good. The empirical participatory action research process is conducted from the midst of 2018 to the midst of 2022 in 18 multi-case micro- and small-sized enterprises.
The findings reveal that micro- and small-sized enterprises pursue to transform business for good integrating instrumental-, moral- and intrinsic value creation. Despite the experienced uncertainty and resource limitations the enterprises pursue value creation for customers and society addressing respectively UN SDGs 3, 8, 9, 11, 12 and 17. None of the hitherto noted entrepreneurial literature branches can alone support micro-and small-sized enterprises to pursue transformation of business. However, the literature branches show useful strengths of respectively: many opportunities, use of own behavior and aims for re-organising resources. The literature branches are also found to have limitations for value creation, respectively: weak organisational frames, lack of use of organisational- and network behaviors and unrealistic antecedents for re-organising of resources. These limitations cause lack of prioritization in the enterprises. The findings show how this can be overcome by integrating the strengths of micro-and small- sized enterprises according to extant literature branches, respectively, utilizing opportunities, utilizing own behavior and utilizing resource development for value creation. Further research is needed regarding the research question posed as this field have a high potential to support value creation and transformation of business for good.