What is it about?
Miller, Miller and Friesen, and other authors delineated differences in managers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners nearly four decades ago. Since then the bulk of scholarly and practical research has focused on the entrepreneur, entrepreneurial tendencies, and orientations, with little of the same interest shown towards those business owners who may not act in traditionally entrepreneurial ways. This paper proposes theoretical differences in small business owners and their approach towards business.
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Why is it important?
We propose an individual-level construct that reflects the values of the small business owner, which helps explain variances in business owners/managers that are not explained in firm-level models such as the classic EO - entrepreneurial orientation. This paper is the first to propose the existence of a "small business orientation" (SBO), and in the process also the first to utilize Schwartz' classic theory of basic values to explain the uniqueness of SBO.
Perspectives
This paper is a culmination of years conducting research on small business owners across North America, using focus groups and survey research. What began 30+ years ago with general statements from Carland, Hoy, Bolton and Carland about differences between small business owners and entrepreneurs, has now been more formally stated in testable theoretical propositions.
Rodney Runyan
Sam Houston State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Small Business Orientation: A Construct Proposal, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, October 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1042258718807171.
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