Institutional Frictions for Post-Growth-Oriented SMEs in a WEGo Country: Evidence from Scotland
(2026) In IIIEE Master THesis IMEM01 20261The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
- Abstract
- Scotland is a founding member of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) partnership and has publicly committed to building an economy that prioritises people and the planet over Gross Domestic Product growth. Yet, growth logic remains embedded in the financial, regulatory and cultural systems that shape business practice. This thesis examines the gap between Scotland’s ambitions for a wellbeing economy and the institutional conditions faced by small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that have deliberately chosen to operate beyond growth. Three research questions guide the study: how Scotland’s wellbeing economy framework conceptualises business beyond growth; how post-growth-oriented SMEs define and implement this practice; and what... (More)
- Scotland is a founding member of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) partnership and has publicly committed to building an economy that prioritises people and the planet over Gross Domestic Product growth. Yet, growth logic remains embedded in the financial, regulatory and cultural systems that shape business practice. This thesis examines the gap between Scotland’s ambitions for a wellbeing economy and the institutional conditions faced by small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that have deliberately chosen to operate beyond growth. Three research questions guide the study: how Scotland’s wellbeing economy framework conceptualises business beyond growth; how post-growth-oriented SMEs define and implement this practice; and what institutional barriers and enablers these SMEs encounter. A qualitative case-study design combines analysis of 33 policy documents across five institutional tiers, interviews with six SME founders and three intermediaries, and company-level documents, analysed through Scott’s institutional pillars and Hinton’s post-growth business model dimensions. Scotland’s policy corpus frames the wellbeing economy as growth made fairer and greener, but post-growth business orientation is absent from all operative documents; while the fiscal architecture of devolution functions as a structural growth requirement. The six SMEs operationalise coherent post-growth practices: non-distributive profit, democratic governance, community purpose, and deliberate scale limits. Yet, none of them self-identifies as post-growth. Structural frictions compound across all three institutional pillars: growth-conditioned finance, Gross-Value-Added-dominated metrics, procurement scale barriers, disproportionate compliance burdens and the cultural equation of business success with growth. Novel frictions include two that are especially consequential: The Scottish Government simultaneously requires business to pay the living wage and sets contract prices too low to make that possible; and enterprises that commit to fair pay and good working conditions consistently absorb a financial shortfall that no existing funding instrument is designed to cover. Scotland’s institutions are not hostile to post-growth enterprises; they were simply not built to support them. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9247282
- author
- Kotrikadze, Revaz LU
- supervisor
-
- Oksana Mont LU
- organization
- course
- IMEM01 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- wellbeing economy, sufficiency entrepreneurship, degrowth, social enterprise, community wealth building
- publication/series
- IIIEE Master THesis
- report number
- 2026:12
- ISSN
- 1401-9191
- language
- English
- id
- 9247282
- date added to LUP
- 2026-08-10 10:16:17
- date last changed
- 2026-08-10 10:16:17
@misc{9247282,
abstract = {{Scotland is a founding member of the Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) partnership and has publicly committed to building an economy that prioritises people and the planet over Gross Domestic Product growth. Yet, growth logic remains embedded in the financial, regulatory and cultural systems that shape business practice. This thesis examines the gap between Scotland’s ambitions for a wellbeing economy and the institutional conditions faced by small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that have deliberately chosen to operate beyond growth. Three research questions guide the study: how Scotland’s wellbeing economy framework conceptualises business beyond growth; how post-growth-oriented SMEs define and implement this practice; and what institutional barriers and enablers these SMEs encounter. A qualitative case-study design combines analysis of 33 policy documents across five institutional tiers, interviews with six SME founders and three intermediaries, and company-level documents, analysed through Scott’s institutional pillars and Hinton’s post-growth business model dimensions. Scotland’s policy corpus frames the wellbeing economy as growth made fairer and greener, but post-growth business orientation is absent from all operative documents; while the fiscal architecture of devolution functions as a structural growth requirement. The six SMEs operationalise coherent post-growth practices: non-distributive profit, democratic governance, community purpose, and deliberate scale limits. Yet, none of them self-identifies as post-growth. Structural frictions compound across all three institutional pillars: growth-conditioned finance, Gross-Value-Added-dominated metrics, procurement scale barriers, disproportionate compliance burdens and the cultural equation of business success with growth. Novel frictions include two that are especially consequential: The Scottish Government simultaneously requires business to pay the living wage and sets contract prices too low to make that possible; and enterprises that commit to fair pay and good working conditions consistently absorb a financial shortfall that no existing funding instrument is designed to cover. Scotland’s institutions are not hostile to post-growth enterprises; they were simply not built to support them.}},
author = {{Kotrikadze, Revaz}},
issn = {{1401-9191}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{IIIEE Master THesis}},
title = {{Institutional Frictions for Post-Growth-Oriented SMEs in a WEGo Country: Evidence from Scotland}},
year = {{2026}},
}