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Business Owners (business + owner)
Kinds of Business Owners Selected AbstractsProfiling a New Generation of Female Small Business Owners in New Zealand: Networking, Mentoring and GrowthGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2002Judy McGregor The contribution of female small business owners to economic development in Western developed countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, is generally under,researched and traditionally grounded in male norms. Increasingly policy,makers acknowledge that in countries like New Zealand where 85% of business employs five or less people, small business offers the greatest employment potential. Not enough is known, though, about the growth orientation and characteristics of female small business owners. This article reports findings from the largest empirical study of small business undertaken in New Zealand and provides inter,gender comparison between male and female small business owners and for intra,gender contrast between networked female small business owners and women who did not belong to a business network. The results showed that the networked women, who were in the main better educated and more affiliative by nature, were more expansionist than both other female small business owners and men. The networked women were also more likely to have a business mentor. The findings confound earlier research suggesting women are less growth,orientated and wish only to satisfy intrinsic needs from their businesses. The article concludes by discussing the need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of female small business and what this means for policy,makers when assessing their socio,economic potential. [source] Work and Employment in Small Businesses: Perpetuating and Challenging Gender TraditionsGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2000Susan Baines More and more women and men are becoming dependent on some form of small business activity for all or part of their livelihoods but there is little research offering insight into gender and working practices in small businesses. In this article we assess some theoretical approaches and discuss these against an empirical investigation of micro-firms run by women, men and mixed sex partnerships. In the ,entrepreneurship' literature, with its emphasis on the individual business owner, we find little guidance. We argue that in the ,modern' micro-business, family and work are brought into proximity as in the ,in between' organizational form described by Weber. The celebrated ,flexibility' of small firms often involves the reproduction within modernity of seemingly pre-modern practices in household organization and gender divisions of labour. This is true in the Britain of the 1990s in a growing business sector normally associated neither with tradition nor with the family. Tradition, however, is never automatic or uncontested in a ,post-traditional society'. A minority of women and men in micro-enterprises actively resist traditional solutions and even traditional imagery of male and female behaviour. For this small group alone new economic conditions seem to bring new freedom. [source] Ethical Attitudes in Small Businesses and Large Corporations: Theory and Empirical Findings from a Tracking Study Spanning Three DecadesJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2006Justin G. Longenecker This study offers a theoretical framework of ethical behavior and a comparative analysis of ethical perceptions of managers of large, mostly publicly traded corporations (those with 1,000 or more employees) and the owners and managers of smaller companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) across 17 years. The primary research provides basic data on the changing standards of ethics as perceived by leaders of large and small businesses where the cultures frequently fall into sharp contrast. Our findings reveal the extent to which the message of business integrity is gaining or losing ground within large and small companies. It does this by means of respondents' judgments of acceptable responses to 16 scenarios profiling common business situations with questionable ethical dimensions. Based on responses from over 5,000 managers and employees (from firms of all sizes) to our scenarios at three points in time (1985, 1993, 2001), we tested two research questions. First, for firms of all sizes, have business ethics improved or declined between the years 1985 and 2001? Second, comparing responses of large and small firm executives across the 1985,2001 time frame, is there a discernible difference in their ethical standards? Our results suggest that business leaders are making somewhat more ethical decisions in recent years. We also found that small business owner,managers offered less ethical responses to scenarios in 1993 but that no significant differences existed with large firm managers in 1985 and 2001. Implications of our findings are discussed. [source] Corruption and Entrepreneurship: How Formal and Informal Institutions Shape Small Firm Behavior in Transition and Mature Market EconomiesENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 5 2010Vartuhí Tonoyan This article explores the determinants of corruption in transition economies of the post-Soviet Union, Central-Eastern Europe, and Western industrialized states. We look in-depth at the East,West gap in corruption, and why entrepreneurs and small business owners become engaged in corrupt deals. Part of the answers lie in the country-specific formal and informal institutional make-up. The likelihood of engaging in corruption is influenced by the lower efficiency of financial and legal institutions and the lack of their enforcements. Also, viewing illegal business activities as a widespread business practice provides the rationale for entrepreneurs to justify their own corrupt activities. Moreover, closed social networks with family, friends, and national bureaucrats reduce the opportunism of the contracting party of the corrupt deal, thus providing breeding grounds for corruption. [source] Transnational Entrepreneurship: Determinants of Firm Type and Owner Attributions of SuccessENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 5 2009Jennifer M. Sequeira Building on a typology of transnational firm types, developed by Landolt, Autler, and Baires in 1999, we examine whether immigrant attitudes toward the host country and their degree of embeddedness in the home country can predict the specific type of transnational enterprise that an immigrant is likely to begin. We also investigate whether the determinants of success of transnational enterprises vary by firm type. Based on a sample of 1,202 transnational business owners drawn from the Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project database, our analyses indicate general support for our hypotheses. More specifically, we found that transnational entrepreneurs' positive perceptions of host country opportunities and greater embeddedness in home country activities helped predict the specific type of ventures they would undertake. Further, the degree of embeddedness in the home country may influence the determinants of success for these types of firms. Depending on firm type, owners attributed their primary success to either personal characteristics, social support, or to the quality of their products and services. [source] The Collaborative Network Orientation: Achieving Business Success through Collaborative RelationshipsENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2008Ritch L. Sorenson This study presents a theoretical concept called the collaborative network orientation (CNO) and tests it using a sample of male and female small business owners. The CNO is based on (1) research that indicates female managers prefer to organize in cooperative network relationships and (2) conflict theory that indicates collaboration is preferred for both building relationships and achieving goals. Empirical tests revealed that female owners had a stronger preference for a CNO. A CNO was associated with business success for all owners, but it was significantly more positively associated with success for male business owners. [source] Effects of Human Capital and Long-Term Human Resources Development and Utilization on Employment Growth of Small-Scale Businesses: A Causal Analysis1ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 6 2005Andreas Rauch The purpose of this study was to explore how three different human resource variables affect employment growth of small-scale enterprises: human capital of business owners, human capital of employees, and human resource development and utilization. The literature suggests different models of how these human resource variables affect business outcomes. Longitudinal data from 119 German business owners provided support for a main effect model indicating that owners' human capital as well as employee human resource development and utilization affect employment growth. Moreover, human resources development and utilization was most effective when the human capital of employees was high. We conclude that human resources are important factors predicting growth of small-scale enterprises. [source] The Quest for Invisibility: Female Entrepreneurs and the Masculine Norm of EntrepreneurshipGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 5 2006Patricia Lewis The emphasis in research on female entrepreneurship remains focused on the impact of gender on women's experience of business ownership, often demonstrated through comparisons of male and female entrepreneurs. By contrast, this article explores the differences and divisions between women business owners who are silent about gender issues and those who are not. The main data drawn on in the article are e-mails conducted through a web-based entrepreneurial network set up to promote and support women in business, supplemented with interview material derived from an interview study of 19 women business owners. By considering the way in which some women business owners not only treat entrepreneurship as gender-neutral, but also seek to conceal its gendered nature, we can see how some female entrepreneurs are trying to avoid being identified as different from the masculine norm of entrepreneurship. [source] Profiling a New Generation of Female Small Business Owners in New Zealand: Networking, Mentoring and GrowthGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2002Judy McGregor The contribution of female small business owners to economic development in Western developed countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, is generally under,researched and traditionally grounded in male norms. Increasingly policy,makers acknowledge that in countries like New Zealand where 85% of business employs five or less people, small business offers the greatest employment potential. Not enough is known, though, about the growth orientation and characteristics of female small business owners. This article reports findings from the largest empirical study of small business undertaken in New Zealand and provides inter,gender comparison between male and female small business owners and for intra,gender contrast between networked female small business owners and women who did not belong to a business network. The results showed that the networked women, who were in the main better educated and more affiliative by nature, were more expansionist than both other female small business owners and men. The networked women were also more likely to have a business mentor. The findings confound earlier research suggesting women are less growth,orientated and wish only to satisfy intrinsic needs from their businesses. The article concludes by discussing the need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of female small business and what this means for policy,makers when assessing their socio,economic potential. [source] Small Business in the Face of Crisis: Identifying Barriers to Recovery from a Natural Disaster,JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006Rodney C. Runyan The crisis management literature has not dealt in depth with small business response to disasters. This study takes a qualitative approach to consider how small businesses respond to and recover from a large disaster, by interviewing stakeholders in five different communities in the Gulf Coast of the United States. Events that are considered to be crises in nature are usually characterized by high consequence, low probability, ambiguity, and decision making time pressure. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath caused small business owners in the U.S. Gulf region to experience each of these. Findings include lack of planning by small business; vulnerability to cash flow interruption; lack of access to capital for recovery; problems caused by federal assistance; and serious infrastructure problems impeding recovery. [source] A Model of Community,Based Venture Capital Formation To Fund Early,Stage Technology,Based FirmsJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Howard Van Auken This paper suggests a model of capital formation that concurrently establishes a mechanism to fund early,stage technology,based firms and meets the economic development needs of rural communities. Investors in a community capital investment fund can gain high rates of return on investment while firms realize all of the benefits associated with the investment, community support, and expanded network. The model includes factors associated with the community environment (community,based factors that impact community members' participation) and external support environment (factors that facilitate the accumulation of investment capital within a community). The result of a community effort can be an environment in which members of the community contribute to an investment fund, cooperate in attracting firms, and provide networking assistance to new business owners. Communities benefit through job creation and economic stability. Community members benefit through wealth creation. [source] Relationships among Strategic Capabilities and the Performance of Women-Owned Small VenturesJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2002Miri Lerner This study of small, life-style ventures owned by women focuses on the strategic, firm-level factors related to business performance. A theoretical model drawing on the resource-based theory is developed and tested empirically. The model includes strategic capabilities, management styles, and their relation to performance. It is tested empirically on a sample of 220 Israeli female business owners. Analysis reveals that life-style venture performance is highly correlated with certain aspects of the business owner's skills as well as the venture&apops;s resources. Paradoxically, the owner/managers in the sample rate their skills and their venture's resources as being weak in precisely those areas that correlate positively with business performance. These findings suggest that performance of life-style ventures owned by women depends more on marketing, financial, and managerial skills than on innovation. [source] Minority Business Access to Mainstream MarketsJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2001Timothy Bates As minority-owned firms have penetrated the broader national marketplace,selling goods and services to corporate as well as government clients,the issue of capacity has surfaced. Particularly in government markets, one claim is that minority business enterprises (MBEs) are smaller, younger firms than nonminorities, and hence they often lack the capacity to compete effectively for government contracts. Affirmative action procurement programs, in this view, provide preferential treatment for less qualified businesses, generating reverse discrimination against the dominant, typically white-male group of business owners. A counterclaim, put forth by proponents of preferential procurement programs, is that discriminatory barriers such as entrenched old-boy networks impede MBE expansion into mainstream markets. Do the entrenched networks really thwart MBEs, or do they simply lack the capacity to compete? Empirical findings of this study support the discriminatory barrier explanation. [source] Expressing Conflict, Neutralizing Blame, and Making Concessions in Small-Claims MediationLAW & POLICY, Issue 2 2000Marian Borg This research examines the link between the way small-claims mediation participants express their conflicts and their willingness to engage in concession-making. Observations of seventy-seven mediation participants suggest that a significant factor in this relationship is the way participants manage the issue of blame. The research identifies three categories of mediants: individuals named in a civil suit who represent themselves; agents, usually lawyers, who represent the interests of other parties in a civil suit; and business owners or managers who represent the interests of their establishments. The study depicts some of the differences in the way these participants describe their conflicts. In particular, the research suggests that the manner in which mediation participants handle the issue of blame , by either justifying, excusing, or denying it , constrains their willingness to engage in concession-making, a fundamental aspect of the mediation process. I discuss implications for future research and for developing strategies that might improve the effectiveness of mediation for some participants. [source] | |||||||||||||