Niklas Kiviluoto | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

The aim of the thesis is to bring profitability back into entrepreneurship: into entrepreneurship research, into entrepreneurship practice, and into entrepreneurship stakeholder perspectives. Such an aim may sound surprising, to say the least, but the facts show that profitability has almost completely been replaced in the three context mentioned. What has replaced profitability is frowth, and especially high-growth. High-growth has become the focus of entrepreneurship research, it is what policy makers worldwide try to foster, investors pursue, and entrepreneurs try to achieve. It has become the norm, business-as-usual, and nobody seems to question its underlying assumptions.

The thesis challenges the current growth and profitability nexus. By doing so, the author hopes to bring profitability back onto the center stage- the place it used to be, and the place where it ought to be. This is done by exploring the phenomenon in three separate studies, all focusing on a specific context; entrepreneurship research, entrepreneurship practice (Finnish bio and IT firms), and entrepreneurship stakeholder perspectives (entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, public investors, and policy makers.)

The three studies show how distorted the growth and profitability nexus really is, and how dominant the high-growth mantra has become. It affects how people think, behave, and make decisions. Therefore, this thesis argues for the correction of this distortion by the rediscovery of profitability in entrepreneurship.