IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ujbmxx/v63y2025i1p279-305.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The board as a guide for learning in growing SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Tom Liljeström
  • Tuuli Ikäheimonen
  • Timo Pihkala

Abstract

This article aims to explore how a company’s board guides learning by connecting active owners, the board, and the management. We suggest that board-guided learning practices connecting the owners, the board, and the management can be vital for growth-oriented companies facing the challenges of success with limited resources. We draw on a qualitative study of 11 Finnish SMEs and employ learning theory taken further by opening the microfoundations of learning between the company’s board and individual owners, board members, and management. We created a framework showing how the board acts by guiding the learning practices, participation in them, and the temporality of the practices at board meetings. Learning not only happens when people meet, but the company’s board can create practices to enhance learning. The study advances learning theory by giving a more granulated picture of the microfoundations of learning between owners, the board, and management.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Liljeström & Tuuli Ikäheimonen & Timo Pihkala, 2025. "The board as a guide for learning in growing SMEs," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(1), pages 279-305, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:279-305
    DOI: 10.1080/00472778.2024.2317168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00472778.2024.2317168
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00472778.2024.2317168?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ujbmxx:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:279-305. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ujbm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.