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The article examines the strategies by which environmentally-motivated social enterprises seek to scale up their positive impacts, drawing on a theoretical understanding of the role of entrepreneurial agency in transitions to a more sustainable economy and society. Case study evidence is used to explore different forms of enterprise growth, contributions to economic, environmental and social value, and the capabilities involved in their realisation. A typology of three distinct approaches or modes is introduced to help explain orientations and strategies that reflect both conventional conceptions of growth and alternative ways of growing social and environmental value. The role of values, capabilities and relational learning in shaping strategies and addressing the tensions and challenges encountered within each category is highlighted.

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The authors investigate the relative roles of a number of influences on workplace health and safety in small firms and, more specifically, the adoption of compliance-related improvement measures. From findings drawn from a survey of over a thousand British small enterprises, marked variations in firm behaviour with respect to health and safety were found, underlining the heterogeneity of small firms in this respect, and the way such behaviour reflects their varied contexts. Factors identified as being particularly associated with a propensity to make compliance-related improvements were: regulatory enforcement activity, use of external assistance with respect to health and safety issues, enterprise size and growth performance, management training and experience, and membership of trade or business associations. Although, as a group, ethnic-minority businesses were found to be neither more or less likely to make improvements of this type compared with their white-owned counterparts, detailed analysis revealed that such variations did exist between individual ethnic groupings; variations that are themselves seen to reflect a number of factors, particularly the employment size and sectoral context. Primarily the authors conclude that inspections on the part of regulatory officials are the most important influence, although there is some scope for more innovative approaches to encouraging compliance-related improvements.

The paper is concerned with organizational learning around cleaner production as a response to environmental pressures, and presents an analysis of the character, strengths and limitations of organizational learning as stimulated by four key drivers: regulation, green market pressures, quality and technical ef ciency considerations, and the culture and values of those within organizations. The analysis is supported by a number of case study examples in manufacturing industry based on eld work conducted between 1993-1996. The theoretical approach draws particularly on the innovation and inward technology transfer literature, which uses the concepts of 'receptivity' and 'absorptive capacity' to explain the ability of organizations to assimilate new knowledge, but is also sensitized to the contested and sometimes con ictual nature of change processes. Particular emphasis is given to (a) the importance of good linkages with external sources of knowledge, including regulators, and (b) the extent to which the organizational culture encourages a pluralistic and participative approach. The case studies suggest that weaknesses with respect to the enforcement of the current regulatory framework and the lack of suf cient nancial incentives (i.e. ecological tax reform) are liable to continue to give rise to selective approaches which do not fully address the cleaner production agenda. In conclusion, the analysis of the limitations of rm-based organizational learning, particularly with respect to the need to change consumption patterns, indicates the continuing need for a wider process of social learning.