Date of Conferral

5-8-2025

Date of Award

May 2025

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Janie Hall

Abstract

Small business leaders often lack effective strategies to develop resource capabilities essential for sustainable growth. This gap challenges their ability to navigate complex and uncertain business environments, which can lead to missed opportunities and long-term instability—making it a critical concern for leaders and entrepreneurs striving for organizational resilience and success. Grounded in the dynamic capabilities’ framework, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore strategies small business leaders used to develop resource capabilities for effective, sustainable growth. The participants were nine managers of social enterprise and nonprofit organizations from a cross-sector of industries in the Greater Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania, who successfully led mission or socially-driven businesses for 5 years, leveraging innovative strategies to develop resource capabilities for sustainable growth. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of publicly available documents. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, five themes emerged: leadership characteristics and experiences, people-focused strategies, collaborative open-innovation digital business models, strategic priorities, and success measures. A key recommendation for small business leaders is to identify their organizational microfoundation routines that under managerial strategies, processes, and decisions, enable opportunities to sense, seize, reconfigure, and transform sustainable practices. The implications for a positive social change include the potential for managers fostering a broad, holistic approach that incorporates people-centric strategies and purpose-driven leadership, creating long-term economic, environmental, and social benefit.

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