Employee ownership as local economic resilience: Evidence from Scotland

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dc.check.date2028-03-14
dc.contributor.authorBrowne, Oliver
dc.contributor.authorNuttall, Graeme
dc.contributor.funderRutgers University
dc.contributor.funderUniversity College Cork
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-29T11:02:01Z
dc.date.available2026-09-29T11:02:01Z
dc.date.issued2026-09-14
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines employee ownership (EO) as a form of collective entrepreneurial succession within regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. Drawing on qualitative case evidence from Scotland, the study explores how EO transitions are motivated, enacted, and experienced as alternatives to trade sale, private equity acquisition, or firm closure in regions. The findings show that EO is frequently chosen by founders of locally embedded small and medium-sized enterprises to preserve organizational culture, retain skilled employment, and maintain local decision-making. Rather than marking an endpoint of entrepreneurship, EO redistributes entrepreneurial agency among employees, requiring them to assume governance and strategic responsibilities previously held by founders and owner-managers. The analysis further demonstrates that EO can support local value retention and resilience, while remaining contingent on governance capability, and institutional support. Conceptually, the paper reframes EO as an entrepreneurial transition mechanism that sustains locally embedded economic activity within regional development systems.en
dc.description.sponsorshipRutgers University|JCC 99641
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity College Cork|College of Business and Law Research Fund
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.extent25
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.authororcidBrowne, Oliver§0000-0002-6103-1615
dc.identifier.authororcidNuttall, Graeme
dc.identifier.citationBrowne, O & Nuttall, G 2026, 'Employee ownership as local economic resilience: Evidence from Scotland', Local Development and Society, pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/26883597.2026.2726359
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/26883597.2026.2726359
dc.identifier.endpage25
dc.identifier.issn2688-3600
dc.identifier.journaltitleLocal Development and Society
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0002-6103-1615/work/228250690
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19356
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherTaylor and Francis Ltd.
dc.relation.urihttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105050461229
dc.rights© 2026, Community Development Society.
dc.rights.accessrightsembargoed access
dc.rights.licensenameAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.statusPeer reviewed
dc.subjectEmployee ownership
dc.subjectEmployee ownership trusts
dc.subjectEntrepreneurial ecosystems
dc.subjectEntrepreneurship
dc.subjectLocal embeddedness
dc.subject[CUBS]
dc.titleEmployee ownership as local economic resilience: Evidence from Scotlanden
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)
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