Abstract
Despite a voluminous body of research on business growth, the processes through which growth unfolds remain underexplored, particularly in relation to how social value considerations shape the growth mode decisions of small businesses. This study addresses that gap by examining how senior decision makers in small businesses form reference points for growth when social value remains implicit and unmeasured alongside more visible financial performance indicators. Using Q-methodology with a P-set of 32 SME senior decision makers, the study identifies four distinct growth modes: the Relational Growth Mode, the Principled Positioning Growth Mode, the Commercially Responsive Growth Mode and the Solution-Oriented Social and Market Growth Mode. Analysed through five dimensions of People, Principle, Practice, Power and Profit, the findings reveal that social value is neither absent from nor peripheral to growth mode decisions but is deeply embedded within them, shaping which growth pathways firms pursue and which they deliberately avoid. The study contributes to the firm growth literature by demonstrating that the how of growth in small businesses cannot be fully understood without reference to the social value orientations that shape it, and highlights a significant gap between the governance-oriented frameworks through which policymakers seek to embed social responsibility and the relational and values-based logics through which small business senior decision makers actually understand and enact it.