The degrowth paradigm has gained popularity in the sustainability discourse in recent years. Questioning the absolute decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation, degrowth proponents suggest downscaling production and consumption to reduce resource extraction and energy consumption. However, this seems to be at odds with conventional wisdom about entrepreneurship. Thus, our research aims to shed light on the implications of the degrowth discourse on entrepreneurship. We answer how degrowth attitudes among (sustainable) entrepreneurs are associated with decision‐making on scaling strategies for their ventures. Differentiating between scaling fast and scaling slow strategies, we show that a degrowth attitude is negatively associated with scaling fast strategies, whether entrepreneurs consider themselves sustainable or not. However, sustainable entrepreneurship is positively associated with scaling slow strategies. Furthermore, we show that the development level of the economy an entrepreneur is active in is an essential factor in the decision‐making on scaling strategies.

中文翻译：

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企业家的去增长态度阻碍了企业的快速扩张

近年来，去增长范式在可持续发展讨论中越来越受欢迎。去增长的支持者质疑经济增长与环境退化的绝对脱钩，建议缩小生产和消费规模，以减少资源开采和能源消耗。然而，这似乎与创业的传统观念相悖。因此，我们的研究旨在阐明去增长话语对创业精神的影响。我们回答（可持续）企业家的去增长态度如何与其企业扩展战略的决策相关。区分快速扩张策略和慢速扩张策略，我们发现，无论企业家是否认为自己具有可持续性，去增长态度与快速扩张策略呈负相关。然而，可持续创业与扩大缓慢战略呈正相关。此外，我们表明，企业家所活跃的经济发展水平是规模战略决策的重要因素。