A Divorce Was Never So Good free essay sample

Sundays in Brazil are like holidays. Everything stops, families get together, wives cook a fresh batch of rice with potato salad, and husbands smell like charcoal from preparing the most delightful barbecues ever. Barefoot children imitate their favorite players on the dusty soccer fields. All that action would stop at noontime so everybody could kill their hunger with those irresistible dishes. Outwardly, my family was no different. My mom cooked, my dad drank his beer in the back of that pink colored building we lived while my best friends’ dads prepared our barbecue, and like many others, I was at the field dreaming of one day becoming one of the nation’s idols. Inwardly, however, my life always differed a little bit from my friends’ lives. Seeing my parents arguments every now and then would hurt me deep inside and make me wonder if all that craziness was necessary. As an only child, it was very difficult to see my mother in her bed drying tears at sunset, with that seven-news song in the back of my head. We will write a custom essay sample on A Divorce Was Never So Good or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page At age nine, all I ever feared was about to become true. I have to admit I was not shocked when I received the news that my parents were getting divorced, but those Mizuno shorts and those Havaianas sandals dad was wearing on that chilly afternoon will be forever remembered. Our tears finally came down, and I could not recognize my father as he cried uncontrollably like I had never seen before. After that moment, I realized I had to get ready for a new beginning. After the divorce, my mother became more courageous and did things she had always dreamed of. She learned how to drive and went back to college to get her degree in Geography. Then in 2003, an opportunity for us to come to America surged. My mother decided to stay, but I went back with my grandmother. It was at this time that dad and I became extremely close; we weren’t just father and son, we were best friends, and, most importantly, we were family. Soccer games, beaches, and amusement parks were some of the things we did together during that time. Two years later I’d be coming to America for the second time. But now I wasn’t coming for vacation, I was here to take care of my future, my goals. Knowing that dad was married again, and there was another Silveira coming to life, I took the challenge and came. But these were not the main reasons why I left dad there. What really gave me a push to come to a country that I knew nothing besides what the movies showed was the relationship with dad that developed after the divorce. He had made me feel so comfortable about our situation that I knew he had my back. I knew I could count on him, and I could tell dad was feeling the same way. Presently, I am away from dad, family, and friends, working my way to the top, and trying to make my dreams come true. As controversial as it sounds, I thank that sorrowful event of my parents’ divorce for putting me in the situation that I am today. As I apply to your prestigious institution, I cannot help but think to myself that if it weren’t for my parents’ divorce, the chances I’d be graduating from Everett High School and pursuing a college career would be extremely remote. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I have to admit, a divorce was a blessing in disguise.

Action Plan free essay sample

Educative initiatives have the power to improve the lives of individuals living with disabilities. Programs and seminars provide disabled individuals with the skills necessary to improve their own situation and improve quality of life. We will write a custom essay sample on Action Plan or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 1. Often, people with disabilities do not the skills to build self-esteem and self-confidence. This issue is important because disabled individuals who do not have self-esteem and self-confidence have a difficult time forming meaningful relationships in their personal and professional lives and have a lower quality of life. 2. The specific goal is to empower disabled individuals so they are able to build self-esteem and self-confidence in order to interact with a society that often views them as inferior. Provide disabled individuals with the tools necessary to improve their outlook. Provide educational opportunities to build self-esteem and self-confidence. 3. The disabled population will benefit significantly through the success of these goals. Disabled individuals will be able to improve quality of life. Disabled individuals will be able to contribute in more ways to their own lives as well as to society. 4. The risk associated with this project is a lack of support that will reduce the chances of funding. The risk associated with not doing it is that the current situation will not improve. Funding will be necessary in order to provide these educational opportunities so those with funding ability must support the initiative. Disabled individuals would benefit from such programs and not funding them does not give them the chance to improve quality of life. 5. There are a number of resources necessary for implementing these programs. Personnel – to teach the programs, to enable participants to apply them in real life Print materials – books, brochures, pamphlets, advertisements, signature forms Community support – this will encourage many people to participate 6. Finding support will be necessary and challenging. Disabled individuals and their families will be the most important source of support. These people can help petition those with the power to fund such a project to show them the importance of such education. Support of collegegues will be necessary to successfully implement the program. 7. Resistance is a reality when any new program is suggested or introduced. Those who feel that disabled individuals would not benefit from such programs will be the primary source of resistance. Decreasing this resistance will occur through the distribution of information based on current research as well as informational meetings throughout the funding and implementation process. 8. Informal power is just as important as formal power. Informal power often allows those in a position of expertise to make those with formal power aware of situations that need improvement. Informal power will take the form of writing letters to those with formal power, petitioning the public for support and being persistent in fighting for the rights of disabled individuals. 9. There will be several indications of success. Spreading awareness to those in a position to help. Encouraging support and enthusiasm among the disabled population for such a program. A push to implement an education program. 10. Immediate steps can be taken to move the program forward. Conduct research to show the importance of education programs to boost self-esteem and self-confidence among disabled individuals. Write letters to those with the authority to act. Petition the community to gain support.

Dishonest Behavior in Accounting

Style-shifting Definition and Examples

Styles In sociolinguistics, the use of more than one style of speech during the course of a single conversation or written text. Two common theories that account for style-shifting are the accommodation model and the ​audience design model, both of which are discussed below. Examples and Observations [H]e struck a few chords, then, to impress her, he awkwardly played a short passage. . . .Schuberts Quartet number fourteen. Right? she asked. Also known as Death and the Maiden.Astonished, he slowly pulled back. I dont believe it! How did you know that? he asked.She got up and straightened her jumpsuit. Black magic. What else? she said, pointing at the fetishes.It occurred to him that she could have heard the passage played by the Julliard student. He started to play another piece.Debussy. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, she said, and he stopped. You play it well, boy!He stood up and closed the piano, suddenly glad that throughout the evening he had spoken to her only in his altered voice, for her musical ear might have unmasked him.Where did you learn music? he asked.Speaking in a Southern drawl again, she replied, Why? Aint it right for a little ol black girl to know what the white folks play?You told me you wereI told you the pianist who lives here is out on a date with a str anger, she said in a firm voice. Well, youre the stranger. And this is where I play. She sat down at the piano and began to play . . ..(Jerzy Kosinski, Pinball. Arcade, 1983) [S]tyle-shifting cannot be defined as shifting from one dialect of English or level of formality to another, but rather as the selective production of certain features of a dialect and the exclusion of others. The focus of attention is on creating a projected linguistic identity.(Catherine Evans Davies, Language and Identity in Discourse in the American South: Sociolinguistic Repertoire as Expressive Resource in the Presentation of Self. Selves and Identities in Narrative and Discourse, ed. by Michael Bamberg, Anna De Fina, and Deborah Schiffrin. John Benjamins, 2007)Successful style-shifting is possible if speakers know what the forms of the vernacular spoken in their area are and can use them in appropriate contexts. Style-shifting (downwards) is not normally stigmatized as long as ones interlocutors know the vernacular is not ones only mode of speech. The term can also be used in a more general sense to refer to shifting from any one style to another, and not just to a vernacular mode.(Raymond Hickey, A Dictionary of Varieties of English. Wiley, 2014) Downward and Upward Style-Shifting The concept of style-shifting is generally used to refer to a change in language varieties which involves only the code-markers, i.e. variable features associated with social and cultural dimensions, such as age, sex, social class, and the relationship between speakers. [Muriel] Saville-Troike (1989) makes a further sub-classification between downward and upward style-shifting to indicate shifts to a lower or higher level, respectively. In addition, Saville-Troike (1989: 67) introduces the notion of intra-sentential style-shifting, which is said to occur when the variety of language used changes within a sentence, for example, as when an informal greeting is followed by a formal address, or even more extreme when there is a shift in formality involving grammar and lexicon. She observes that this sort of style-shifting should only be used intentionally for humorous purposes in English, as behavior of this kind is likely to be frowned upon by teachers, especially in writing.However, Sm ith (1986: 108-109) noted that textbook instruction clearly differs from actual practice.(Katja Lochtman and Jenny Kappel, The World a Global Village: Intercultural Competence in English Foreign Language Teaching. VUB Press, 2008) Style-Shifting and the Speech Accommodation Model The accommodation model ascribes style shifts to the speakers evaluation of the addressees social identity. A positive evaluation results in convergence, where a speaker begins to sound more like the addressee (conversely, a negative evaluation results in divergence, where the speaker marks social distance by sounding less like the addressee).(Michael Pearce, The Routledge Dictionary of English Language Studies. Routledge, 2007) Style-Shifting and Audience Design Theory [Allan] Bells (1977, 1984) Audience Design Theory (AD) states that people engage in style-shifting normally in response to audience members rather than to shifts of attention paid to speech. In this way, intra-speaker [within speaker] variation is a response to interspeaker [between speakers] variation, chiefly as manifested in ones interlocutors (Bell 1984:158). In fact, intra-speaker variation derives from the variability that differentiates social groups (inter-speaker variation) and, therefore, its range of variation will never be greater than that of the latter. This theory is based on the socio psychological model developed by Howard Giles (speech accommodation theory: SAT; see Giles Powesland 1975, Giles Smith 1979, or Giles Coupland 1991) to explain the causes of styling, especially in the consideration of the effects of addressees as audience members in terms of accent convergence or divergence (see also Auer Hinskens 2005).The Audience Design Model provides a fuller acc ount of stylistic variation than the Attention to Speech one because (i) it goes beyond speech styles in the sociolinguistic interview by trying to be applicable to natural conversational interaction; (ii) it aims at explaining the interrelation of intra-speaker and inter-speaker variation and its quantitative patterning; and (iii) it introduces an element of speaker agency into stylistic variation, i.e. it includes responsive as well as initiative dimensions to account for the fact that (a) speakers respond to audience members in shaping their speech and (b) they sometimes engage in style shifts that do not correspond with the sociolinguistic characteristics of the present audience . . .. [V]ariationists are now becoming more increasingly interested in incorporating social constructionist (creative) approaches into style-shifting that view speakers actively taking part in shaping and re-shaping interactional norms and social structures, rather than simply accommodating to them.(J.M. Hernndez Campoy and J.A. Cutillas-Espinosa, Introduction: Style-Shifting Revisited. Style-Shifting in Public: New Perspectives on Stylistic Variation, ed. by Juan Manuel Hernndez Campoy and Juan Antonio Cutillas-Espinosa. John Benjamins, 2012) Audience design applies to all codes and levels of a language repertoire, monolingual and multilingual. Audience design does not refer only to style-shift. Within a language, it involves features such as choice of personal pronouns or address terms (Brown and Gilman 1960, Ervin-Tripp 1972), politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson 1987), use of pragmatic particles (Holmes 1995), as well as quantitative style-shift (Coupland 1980, 1984).Audience design applies to all codes and repertoires within a speech community, including the switch from one language to another in bilingual situations (Gal 1979, Dorian 1981). It has long been recognized that the processes which make a monolingual shift styles are the same as those that which make bilingual switch languages (e.g. Gumperz 1967). Any theory of style needs to encompass both monolingual and multilingual repertoiresthat is, all the shifts a speaker may make within her linguistic repertoire.​(Allan Bell, Back in Style: Reworking Audience Design. Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, ed. by Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford. Cambri dge University Press, 2001)

Effect of Culture on Expatriates Work Performance Research Paper

Effect of Culture on Expatriates Work Performance - Research Paper Example Another reason why Fairmont failed to sustain its luster is due to its lack of emphasis towards the replacement of its traditional equipment, fixture, and fittings in order to keep abreast with the changing trends. Singapore city had remained economically vibrant over the past few years and thus had attracted both business travelers and tourists alike from across the borders at an increased pace. Demand had remained stable throughout the hospitality sector and hotel segment, but the hotel’s management had felt an alarming situation whilst its occupancy rate dropped immediately in times when the pressure from either group faded. In instances like the business holiday season, the occupancy rate dropped more abruptly compared to other industry players or far more than the industry rate. Likewise, as soon as the peak season for tourists diminished the rate drop for Fairmont surpassed that of its peers. Management is concerned regarding hotel’s obnoxious performance and fear s that if no prompt action is taken to bring in higher efficiency that would match the performance of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. Management is concerned regarding the prevalent obnoxious performance and fears that if no prompt action to bring in higher efficiency that would match that of its peers, it might have to face consequences like complete closure. So in order to implement and transform a strategy shift through change management, the solution is to be devised based on the current factors that relate to the business.

How to lose your weight Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to lose your weight - Essay Example We try sometimes to keep attending the gym or going for five laps around the field every day. But, how many times do we find ourselves missing due to many excuses and being tired? All these only show us how much we struggle to lose weight, by putting on the willpower, but many a times we are weakened by our programs and weaknesses. Everyone likes being lean, especially ladies. Being lean helps us to live healthily with less susceptibility to dangerous diseases such as obesity, high-blood pressure, heart attack and cardiac arrest among others. We, therefore, employ various practices to help us lose weight to achieve this state. However, some of the practices we employ have other effects on us, if we dont do them right. In this essay, our main focus will be on some practices we employ to help us lose weight and their possible effects on our health. One main reason people gain weight faster is the excess amounts of food they intake, especially the carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are rich in calories that can make us fat very fast. To help us avoid increasing weight due to excess intake of carbohydrates, we can kill our appetite to allow us take less food and eat appropriately. Adequate portions of food should be taken, and this should be balanced for a balanced diet. We should reduce the number of times they eat per day and get used to leaner diets. A lot of proteins should be included in every food portions one would server. In as much as this method works to help people lose weight, some people overdo it, which causes negative effects to their health. Instead of just reducing the quantities of food that they take, some people end up starving since they want to lose weight faster. Starving has negative effects that will leave one very weak and susceptible to many diseases still. Conditions such as ulcers may also come in when one starves too much. Some people also decline to take carbohydrates and any food portion with fat at all. This may also make one grow

The Sme Growth Strategies Economics Essay

The Sme Growth Strategies Economics Essay This paper focuses on factors affecting the growth and performance of small and medium enterprises. The aim was to identify strategic factors differentiating young and long-lived growth SMEs. The empirical data consisted of 32 young (8 years or less) and 33 long-lived (20 years or more) growth SMEs. A comparison of the two groups of growth SMEs revealed strategic differences with important implications between young and long-lived SMEs. The results suggest that firm age does matter for SME growth strategies. The results increase our understanding of the factors affecting SME growth and performance in two different contexts. Keywords: growth; performance; strategies; small and medium enterprises INTRODUCTION Firm growth is a central focus area in strategy, organizational and entrepreneurship research. Much research effort has been targeted particularly at investigating the factors affecting firm growth, but to date there is no comprehensive theory to explain which firms will grow or how they grow (e.g. Garnsey, 1996). It seems that not even very strong explanatory factors have been identified, though various explanatory approaches have been presented. The research community largely shares the view that growth SMEs have a special importance in the economy (see e.g. Storey, 1994). During the last ten years, the research on firm growth has largely focused on high-growth SMEs. It is argued that a relatively small proportion of all small firms are responsible for the major part of the small firm contribution to net new jobs (Storey, 1994; Birch et al., 1993). These firms have been described as gazelles, fliers, growers and winners, and the targeting of effort towards them has been described as picking, stimulating, or backing winners (see e.g. Gibb, 1997; Freel, 1998; Beaver Jennings, 1995). More recently, the role of fast-growing small firms has been questioned, and the issue is known as the mice vs. gazelles (Birch et al., 1993) or flyers vs. trundlers (Storey, 1994) debate. In other words, the debate has focused on the question: which of these actually has the major impact on net employment (Davidsson Delmar, 1998)? On the other hand, it has been recognized that attending exclusively to firm-level growth and jobs may be too narrow an approach. Firms, even very small and non-growing ones, can have different strategic roles or positions in the local economic system (Laukkanen 1999). Some are critical facilitators of other firms growth or of their very emergence, and thus are important for job creation at the local level. In fact, previous research reveals that firm growth is a multidimensional phenomenon. There is substantial heterogeneity in a number of factors associated with firm growth and related research (Delmar et al., 2003). The most recent research on firm growth has increased our understanding of different growth patterns. As Delmar et al. (2003) have shown, firm growth patterns are related to the demographic characteristics of firms such as firm age. SME growth is often closely associated with firm overall success and survival (e.g. Johannisson, 1993; Phillips Kirchhoff, 1989). Growth has been used as a simple measure of success in business (e.g. Storey, 1994). Also, as Brush and Vanderwerf (1992) suggest, growth is the most appropriate indicator of the performance for surviving small firms. Moreover, growth is an important precondition for the achievement of other financial goals of business (de Geus, 1997: 53; Storey, 1994; Reynolds, 1993; Day, 1992: 128; Phillips Kirchhoff, 1989). From the point of view of an SME, growth is usually a critical precondition for its longevity (Storey, 1994: 158). Phillips and Kirchhoff (1989) found that young firms that grow have twice the probability of survival as young non-growing firms. It has been also found that strong growth may reduce the firms profitability temporarily, but increase it in the long run (McDougall et al., 1994; cf. MacMillan Day, 1987). However, there are several conceptual and empirical challenges in the study of firm growth (see e.g. Davidsson Wiklund, 2000; Delmar, 1997). Firm growth in general refers to increase in size. In research, firm growth has been operationalized in many ways and different measures have been used. This may be one reason for the contradictory results reported by previous studies (Weinzimmer et al., 1998: 235), though other explanations have also been presented (see Delmar et al., 2003; see also Davidsson Wiklund, 2000). The most frequently used measure for growth has been change in the firms turnover (e.g. Weinzimmer et al., 1998: 238; Hubbard Bromiley, 1995; Hoy et al., 1992; Venkatraman Ramanujam, 1986). Another typical measure for growth has been change in the number of employees. However, it has been found that these measures, which are frequently used in the SME context, are strongly intercorrelated (North Smallbone, 1993; Storey et al., 1987). Such an intercorrelation may not exist among capital-intensive large companies. Most studies of firm growth have focused on large companies or new venture, while the growth of established, long-lived SMEs seems to have attracted much less attention. In fact, many organizational life cycle models present growth as one stage of development in the organizational life cycle. On the other hand, it has been shown that most new jobs are created by existing, not new, SMEs (e.g. Davidsson et al., 1993; see also North et al., 1992). However, previous studies of SME performance have focused on the performance of new ventures rather than on existing SMEs and on the factors behind their longevity and growth (e.g. Tsai et al., 1991; Duchesneau Gartner, 1990; Keeley Roure, 1990). This study takes a holistic and extensive approach to factors affecting SME growth and performance. Firm growth and performance are much affected by strategy, which involves choices along a number of dimensions and can be represented by a firms overall collection of individual business-related decisions and actions (Mintzberg, 1978; Miles Snow, 1978). Though there is a variety of definitions of the term of strategy, it can accurately be conceptualized as a pattern of strategic variables, because the elements of strategy the individual business-related decisions and actions are interdependent and interactive (Galbraith Schendel, 1983). It is argued that the identification of strategy patterns permits a more complete and accurate depiction of overall strategic behavior (see e.g. Hambrick, 1983; Robinson Pearce, 1988). Previous research has suggested that the paths to growth can differ systematically by firm-level factors such as firm age (Fisher and Reuber, 2003; Delmar Davidsson, 1998). In fact, already in the late fifties Penrose (1959) presented the view that a firms growth pattern is dependent on its age, size, and industry affiliation (see Delmar et al., 2003; also Stinchcombe, 1965). As Delmar et al. (2003) suggest, it is probable that different growth patterns have different implications for management and possibly also for the long-term performance of the firm. In this light it seems useful to compare young growth SMEs and long-lived growth SMEs and determine whether they differ in characteristics and strategies. The central research question is, how do young and long-lived growth SMEs differ in their strategic attributes? In other words, the aim of this paper is to investigate whether firm age plays a role in firm characteristics and strategies. The findings will increase our understanding of the factors associated with firm growth and performance in these two different contexts. FACTORS AFFECTING SME GROWTH Although there has been much interest in understanding small firm growth during the last ten years (e.g. Davidsson Delmar, 1999; Delmar, 1997; Wiklund, 1998), there is still not much of a common body of well-founded knowledge about the causes, effects or processes of growth (Davidsson Wiklund, 2000). Moreover, although several determinants of firm growth have been suggested, researchers have been unable to achieve a consensus regarding the factors leading to firm growth (Weinzimmer, 2000). Most of the research work in this area fails to provide convincing evidence of the determinants of small firm growth as a basis for informing policy makers (Gibb Davies, 1990: 26). Attempts to build models for predicting the future growth of the firm, i.e. picking winners, have not been particularly successful. Moreover, as Spilling (2001) reminds us, the status of being a growth firm may be rather temporary. Early studies of growth focused on large companies and their diversification strategies. However, small firms are not small big firms. In large companies the role of diversification, for example, may be significantly bigger than in the case of SMEs. Indeed, growth through diversification may be necessary for the growth of a large company (Kay, 1997). The existing research on the growth and strategy of SMEs has focused mainly on new ventures (Olson Bokor, 1995). There are few studies of the growth of established SMEs: one instance is Davidsson (1989), who studied the subsequent growth of an SME from the psychological point of view. Maybe the most comprehensive compilation of results of previous studies focusing on small firm growth is that presented by Storey (1994). Several classifications of factors affecting firm growth have been presented. The general preconditions for growth have been suggested to be (1) entrepreneurs growth orientation; (2) adequate firm resources for growth; and (3) the existence of the market opportunity for growth (cf. Davidsson, 1991). Storey (1994: 158) claims that there are three key influences on the growth rate of a small independent firm: (1) the background and access to resources of the entrepreneur(s); (2) the firm itself; and (3) the strategic decisions taken by the firm once it is trading. The most important factors associated with an entrepreneur are motivation, education, the firm having more than a single owner, and the firm having middle-aged business owners. The growth of the smallest and youngest firms is the most rapid. The location and industry sector also affect the growth. The most important strategic factors are shared ownership, an ability to identify market niches and introduce new products, and an ability to build an efficient management team. Storey argues that these three components need to be combined appropriately for growth to be achieved. Gibb and Davies (1990: 16-17), on the other hand, have grouped the factors explaining growth into four types of approach (Gibb, 1997: 2-3; Pistrui et al., 1997; Poutziouris et al., 1999). These are: (1) personality-dominated approaches, which explore the impact of personality and capability on growth, including the entrepreneurs personal goals and strategic business aspirations (e.g. Chell Haworth, 1991; 1992); (2) firm development approaches, which seek to characterize the growth pattern of the firm across stages of development and the influence of factors affecting growth process (e.g. Scott Bruce, 1987); (3) business management approaches, which pay attention to the importance of business skills and the role of functional management, planning, control and formal strategic orientation in terms of shaping the growth and performance of the firm in the marketplace (e.g. Bamberger, 1989; 1983); and (4) sectoral and broader market-led approaches which focus largely on the identificati on of growth constraints and opportunities relating to small firm growth in the context of regional development or the development of specific industrial sectors such as high-technology small firms (e.g. Smallbone et al., 1993). The entrepreneur and growth intention The behavior of entrepreneurs is strongly affected by intentions (e.g. Krueger Carsrud, 1993: 315; Bird, 1988: 442). The firms strategic behavior and subsequent growth is understandable in the light of its growth intention. Therefore, firm growth is based not merely on chance, but on the managements conscious decision making and choice. Naturally, the firm can grow even though it is not the managements aim, but in such a case the growth is not planned and so may include more risks. Planning helps in managing growth. In general, goals and objectives can be divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are final goals which are valuable as such. On the other hand, there are goals which have instrumental value for achieving some other goals. Growth can be regarded as the second most important goal of a firm, the most important one being firm survival, i.e. the continuity of the business. Moreover, growth is an important precondition for a firms longevity. Negative growth of an SME is often a sign of problems, while stagnation, i.e. a situation where growth has stopped, is usually indicative of problems that a firm will face in the future. As a matter of fact, growth often has instrumental value. For new ventures, firm growth is needed to ensure an adequate production volume for profitable business. Growth can serve as an instrument for increasing profitability by enlargening the firms market-share. Other similar goals include securing the continuity of business in the conditions of growing demand or achieving economies of scale. Moreover, growth may bring the firm new business opportunities (cf. the corridor principle, Timmons 1999), and a larger size enhances its credibility in the market. Also, achieving a higher net value of the firm can be regarded as a motive for firm growth. In SMEs, growth objectives are often bound up with the owner-managers personal goals (e.g. Jennings Beaver, 1997), and so it is important that they support each other. Much has been written about the importance of the entrepreneurs growth motivation (e.g. Perren, 2000; Davidsson, 1991; Miner, 1990). The close connection between an owner-manager and the firm is the dominant characteristic of small firms (Vesalainen, 1995: 18). Instead of profit maximization or growth, a firms primary goal may be the entrepreneurs independence or self-realization (see e.g. Foley Green, 1989). Moreover, there may be no adequate resources for growth, or the expected increase in business risks may limit a firms growth willingness. However, aversion to growth has been said to be the principal reason why most SMEs stagnate and decline (Clark et al., 2001). In several typologies, entrepreneurs and firms are categorized by their business goals, so growth has been a widely used dimension in many typologies. There are two broad approaches in the studies of small firm success: (1) the business professionals model, and (2) the small business proprietors model (Bridge et al., 1998: 140-142). These two approaches can be identified in several typologies of entrepreneurs (e.g. Smith, 1967; Stanworth Curran, 1976). According to the business professionals model, a successful firm is one that achieves its highest potential in terms of growth, market share, productivity, profitability, return on capital invested or other measures of the performance of the firm itself. In the small business proprietors model, the owner-managers main concern is whether the firm is providing them with the benefits they want from it. These benefits are often associated with a lifestyle and an income level to maintain it. In the latter model, firm success therefore mean s being able to reach a level of comfort rather than achieving the businesss maximum potential. Firm development In firm development approaches, firms are seen as temporal phenomena which are born, grow, mature, decline and die. Firm growth is the basic dimension of the models of organizational life cycles (e.g. Greiner, 1972; 1998; Mintzberg, 1979; Churchill Lewis, 1983; 1991; Miller Friesen, 1983b; Scott Bruce, 1987). Numerous models of organizational life cycles have been presented, e.g. a three stage model (Smith et al., 1985), four stage models (Quinn Cameron, 1983; Kazanjian, 1988), five stage models (Greiner, 1972; Galbraith, 1982; Churchill Lewis, 1983; Scott Bruce, 1987), and a seven stage model (Flamholtz, 1986). These multistage models use a diverse array of characteristics to explain organizational growth and development. Organizational life cycle models is one application of the configurational approach in describing the stages of life cycles and the transformation from one stage to another (Mintzberg et al., 1998). Common to these growth pattern models is the claim that changes in an organization follow a pattern characterized by discrete stages of development (Dodge et al., 1994). Typical of these patterns are the sequence of events that show how things change over time, a hierarchical progression that is not easily reversed, and a composite of a broad range of organizational activities and structures. Organizational life cycle models are important in understanding the differences in success factors of the firm between the stages of the life cycle. However, organizational life cycle models have been criticized because of their extreme simplification of reality: in some cases not all stages of development are found, some stages of development may occur several times, the stages of development may occur in an irregular order, and there is a lack of empirical evidence to support the theories (e.g. Gibb Davies, 1990; Bridge et al., 1998: 105; Eggers et al., 1994; Birley Westhead, 1990; Miller Friesen, 1983a; Vinnell Hamilton, 1999; cf. Dodge et al., 1994). In addition, on the basis of the results of their study of high-growth firms, Willard et al. (1992) concluded that the applicability of conventional wisdom regarding the leadership crisis in rapid growth entrepreneurial firms may no longer be valid, if, in fact, it ever was. Despite the critiques of organizational life cycle models, strategic management and entrepreneurship research has demonstrated life cycle theory to be one of the most powerful tools for understanding and predicting venture performance. According to Greiner (1972; 1998), for example, a firms failure to adapt to a series of crises caused by growth is one of the principal causes of firm failure. Growth strategies Several growth strategies related to business management approaches have been presented in the literature. Managing growth is a major strategic issue for a growing firm (see e.g. Arbaugh Camp, 2000). Strategy is the most important determinant of firm growth (Weinzimmer, 2000). Among high-growth firms, Dsouza (1990) identified three primary strategic clusters: (1) build strategy, i.e. emphasis on vertical integration; (2) expand strategy, i.e. emphasis on resource allocation and product differentiation; and (3) maintain strategy, i.e. emphasis on market dominance and/or efficiency. Thompson (2001: 563-565) presents four growth strategies: (1) organic growth; (2) acquisition; (3) strategic alliance; and (4) joint venture. On the other hand, when looking at the product/market strategy, four options can be seen: (1) market penetration; (2) new product development; (3) new market development; and (4) moving into new markets with new products (Burns, 1989: 47). However, there is a lack of agreement in empirical findings concerning product- and market-based strategies. While Sandberg and Hofer (1987) argue that product-based strategies work better than focused strategies, Cooper (1993) claim that focused strategies outperform differentiated product strategies (Pistrui et al., 1997). Perry (1986/87) investigated growth strategies for an established small firm, and concluded that the most appropriate growth strategies are niche strategies, i.e. market development and product development strategies, in that order. However, it seems that most empirical studies focus on new venture strategies. Studies of competitive strategies related to firm growth have been carried out in the new venture context by McDougall and Robinson (1990), McDougall et al. (1992), Carter et al. (1994), and Ostgaard and Birley (1995), among others. As opposed to the organic growth strategy, acquisitions are regarded rather as a large company growth strategy which can be either synergistic or nonsynergistic (Anslinger Copeland, 1996). Forward or backward vertical integration means that the acquired firm is located at a different level of the value-addition chain, i.e. the acquired firm is a customer or supplier of the firm. In contrast, horizontal integration refers to a firm which is at the same level of value-addition, i.e. it is a competitor. Lateral integrations refer to unrelated businesses which represent a diversification strategy. In addition to becoming bigger and thus acquiring greater market power, there might be several other reasons for acquisitions, e.g. acquiring synergies, industry restructuring, reduction of business risk, acquiring new knowledge and other necessary resources, overcoming barriers to entry, and entering new markets quickly (see Vermeulen Barkema, 2001; Empson, 2000; Birkinshaw, 1999; Tetenbaum, 1999; Chatterjee, 1992). Despite the fact that growth through acquisitions is more typical of larger firms than smaller ones (see e.g. Davidsson Delmar, 1998), it is one option for the growth of an SME. However, it seems that few studies focus on acquisitions made by small firms. Also, one often neglected way of growing is by setting up new firms. Studies using a firm as the unit of analysis have not been able to identify growth through a portfolio of firms as one way of growing (see Scott Rosa, 1996). However, it has been found that portfolio entrepreneurship appears to be more common than suspected, and that it is characteristic of entrepreneurs who own and manage growth firms (Pasanen, 2003b). Wiklund (1998: 239) concluded that growth through portfolios of firms does not seem to be an alternative to growing a single firm, but entrepreneurs leading rapidly growing firms tend more often to start subsidiaries and independent new firms and to grow these firms. Small business growth through geographic expansion is a challenging growth strategy, as during the course of opening a new geographical site an entrepreneur will be confronted with the task of managing an existing business and a start-up at the same time (Barringer Greening, 1998). Penrose (1959) proposed already in the late fifties that firm growth is constrained by the availability and quality of managerial resources. Many studies draw attention to the important role of an entrepreneurial team for firm growth (see Birley Stockley, 2000). Also, in their study of technology-based ventures, Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven (1990) found an association between a strong management team and firm growth (see also Weinzimmer, 1997). In addition to the importance of favourable firm-internal conditions, the strategies should be in harmony with the environmental conditions. Different growth environments may require different business strategies for SMEs. For instance, Chaganti (1987) found that for small manufacturing firms, different growth environments required distinctly different strategies. Interestingly, this was contrary to the findings concerning large companies. It was concluded that strategic flexibility is a critical requirement for small firms (Chaganti, 1987). Growth barriers Sectoral and broader market-led approaches focus largely on the identification of growth constraints and opportunities. It has been found, for instance, that economic fluctuations strongly affect the growth probability of small firms (Kangasharju, 2000). Also, for firm growth, it seems that aiming at growing market niches is more important than taking market shares from competitors (Wiklund, 1998). However, growth can happen only if there are no growth barriers. Such barriers can be related to firm-internal and firm-external factors (see e.g. Barber et al., 1989; Smallbone North, 1993a; Vaessen Keeble, 1995; Jones-Evans, 1996; Vesper, 1990: 174-175; Hay Kamshad, 1994). The growth barriers characteristic of small firms in peripheral locations have been presented by Birley and Westhead (1990: 538). In the study carried out by the Cambridge Small Business Research Centre (1992), the most common growth barriers were related to factors on the macro level. The most important growth barriers were related to difficulties in obtaining finance and the price of money, the level of and decrease in demand (also Perren, 2000), and tightening competition (also Hay Kamshad, 1994). Other growth barriers were caused by restrictions determined by authorities, problems in obtaining a skilled workforce, and the small number or lack of potential cooperation partners in the area. The firm-internal factors affecting unwillingness to grow include the entrepreneurs fear of losing her or his autonomy, difficulties in fitting together personal and the firms goals, and weak managerial or marketing skills (see also MacNabb, 1995; Perren, 2000). These issues are particularly ty pical when an entrepreneur transfers from the role of entrepreneur to that of manager, or when the firm hires a new manager. DATA AND METHODS This paper is based on data from a larger exploratory study of the factors affecting SME performance (Pasanen, 2003a). Empirical data were collected from 111 growing SMEs in Eastern Finland. The sample was split into quartiles, based on firm age. Lower and upper quartiles of firms were chosen for the final samples, in order to compare the firms in these quartiles with each other. The lower quartile consisted of 32 SMEs aged eight years or less (young firms), whereas the upper quartile consisted of 33 SMEs aged twenty years or more (long-lived firms). A growth firm was defined as a firm with actual growth in turnover during the past five years. Growth was measured as a change in turnover between two time points ignoring the regularity or irregularity of growth over time (see Delmar et al., 2003; Weinzimmer et al., 1998; Delmar, 1997). A mail questionnaire was directed to the CEOs of SMEs operating in the sectors of manufacturing, business services, and tourism. The response rate was 5 3.7 %. Firms in the samples shared the following features: (1) size: SMEs, i.e. they employed fewer than 250 persons; (2) performance: growth firms, i.e. they had grown in terms of turnover during past years; (3) location: peripheral, i.e. outside major cities and not in core areas; (4) ownership: independent firms, not subsidiaries of other companies; and (5) industry sector: operated in the sectors of manufacturing, business services, and tourism. The age of young firms ranged from 2 to 8 years, the average being 5.5 years with standard deviation of 1.7 years. The age of long-lived firms ranged from 20 to 120 years, the average being 40.4 years with standard deviation of 24.9 years. Half of the long-lived firms were less than 35 years old. A comparison of the two groups of SMEs was based on data referring to the characteristics of entrepreneurs and enterprises, their life cycles, the strategic choices made, the success factors of SMEs, and the nature of their environment (see Pasanen, 2003a). Several factors in these areas are associated with firm performance. The characteristics of entrepreneurs consist of variables relating to entrepreneurs education, experience and other demographic factors. Variables related to the characteristics of SMEs and their life cycles include the firms demographic characteristics and growth behavior indicators. For the strategic choices made by the firm, the focus was on innovativeness, internationalization, specialization and networking. These strategic choices include three important elements affecting SME performance: markets, products, and the way of doing business (Normann, 1976). Innovativeness refers to the products of the firm, internationalization to its markets, and specializatio n and networking to the way of doing business. The environment was approached by studying the characteristics of the customer, industry and location. The success factors of SMEs were presented as statements describing their importance in the firms competitive advantage. In identifying the differences between young and long-lived SMEs, approximately 150 variables were tested using appropriate statistical tests, depending on the variable: the t test, non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test, or chi-square test. These tests were conducted to test the differences between the two groups for each of the individual variables. In some analyses, the U test was used instead of the t test due to the skewness of the data. RESULTS A number of differences in characteristics of the owner-managers and firms and their success factors were found between young and long-lived growth SMEs. Three variables related to the characteristics of the owner-managers showed statistically significant differences between the two groups of SMEs (Table 1). Almost all young firms were led by the founder(s) of the firm, whereas this was the case for only half of the long-lived SMEs. Among young SMEs, owner-managers had less experience and were younger than their counterparts in long-lived SMEs. TABLE 1 Differences in characteristics of owner-managers between young and long-lived SMEs (p Variables Test p value Founder  Ã‚ £2 = 6.705 (df = 1) p = .010 Total length of experience as owner-manager U test (z = -2.546) p = .011 Age U test (z = -2.459) p = .014 Fourteen variables characterizing the SMEs showed statistically significant differences between young and long-lived SMEs (Table 2). Young firms had had more founders (means 3.3 vs. 2.1) and had more founders still involved in the firm at the time of the survey than long-lived SMEs had (means 2.9 vs. 1.1). Almost all young firms were founded by a team of owners, whereas half of the long-lived SMEs were founded by a single owner. Being a family firm was more typical of long-lived SMEs (58%) than of young firms (19%). Long-lived SMEs were bigger in size than their younger counterparts: the average full-time personnel was 84 employees in long-lived SMEs and 21 in young firms. Moreover, the number of establishments was bigger in long-lived SMEs than in young firms, averaging 3.5 and 1.7, respectively. Acquisitions or mergers were more typical of long-lived SMEs (39%) than of young SMEs (13%). Owner-managers in long-lived SMEs were more satisfied with their firms success than those in young firms. On a scale of 1 (fully satisfied) to 4 (not at all satisfied), owner-managers in the long-lived SMEs had an average satisfaction of 1.7, whereas among young firms the average was 2.1. During their life cycle, more than half of the long-lived SMEs (55%) had at least once faced a situation where the firms existence, i.e. survival, had been threatened, while only one fifth of the young SMEs (22%) reported that their existence had been threatened. Managerial know-how was considered to be higher in long-lived SMEs than in young firms. In long-lived SMEs, principles and practices of management had changed more than in young firms. Among young SMEs, almost all firms (91%) had stayed close to their original business, whereas among long-lived SMEs seven out of ten firms (70%) had stayed close to their original business. There were also differences in products and customer structures between young and long-lived SMEs. The proportion of products with declining volume was higher in long-lived SMEs (6% of their products), whereas such products accounted for 2% of the young firms products. Among young firms, the cumulative proportion of turnover due to the five biggest customers was 59% of the firms total turnover, whereas in long-lived SMEs it was clearly lower, 41%. TABLE 2 Differences in characteristics of firms between young