Interpretive inquiry of family and enterprise
As outlined in the preceding sections, the study of family and enterprise has roots in a range of disciplines from psychology and social anthropology to economic history. The study of …
Integrating notions of family and enterprise
The ‘developmental’ approach to the study of businesses involving family members (and the assumptions underlying it) provided the basis for a significant shift in our understanding of the relationship between …
Family business: a strategic overview
One approach to the study of family businesses has been to identify the characteristics and processes that differentiate family from non-family firms (Donckels and Frohlich, 1991; Daily and Dollinger, 1993; …
Family and enterprise
Throughout history the institutions of family and economy have always been broadly interrelated. In pre-industrial societies, for example, ‘family’ and ‘working’ life were highly integrated and the family unit was …
Family and entrepreneurship
Denise Fletcher 11.1 Introduction This chapter provides a review of the different approaches that have been utilised to examine the link between family and enterprise. Definitional issues are addressed, as …
Ethnic minority business and enterprise support
Encouraging ethnic minority communities into self-employment has been a discernible feature of national and local policymaking since the early 1980s (see Chapter 4). There appear to be two particular reasons …
Funding ethnic minority enterprise
There can be little doubt that under-funding remains one of the most intractable problems facing ethnic minority small business owners. The difficult task of securing finance for business start-up is …
Restricted spatial markets
Most EMBs are located within Britain’s inner cities, which is perhaps a reflection of ethnic settlement patterns (Basu, 1991; Reeves and Ward, 1984). Labour Force Survey data indicate that 70% …
Family and co-ethnic labour
A further prominent characteristic of EMBs is the use made of family and co-ethnic labour. Such labour is often portrayed as a critical source of ‘competitive advantage’ for ethnic business, …
The business entry decision
One of the most keenly debated issues within the ethnic business literature concerns the decision to become self-employed. Various explanations have been advanced outlining the processes that give rise to …
Ethnic minority business activity: the British experience
As in the US, one of the most debated features of the EMB population in Britain is the marked disparity between the circumstances of different groups, most clearly evident in …
Ethnic minority enterprise: an international perspective
Throughout virtually the entire economically advanced world, immigration has increased steadily from the mid-twentieth century onwards and immigrant-origin ethnic minorities have emerged as a burgeoning presence among the entrepreneurial self-employed. …
Ethnicity and enterprise
Throughout advanced industrial societies, the last two decades have witnessed a significant increase in self-employment and small business activity among ethnic minorities (Kloosterman and Rath, 2003; Ram and Jones, 1998; …
Ethnicity and entrepreneurship
Monder Ram, Giles Barrett and Trevor Jones 10.1 Introduction Ethnic minority-owned businesses are now an established and growing feature of many advanced industrial societies. In addition to fulfilling an important …
The performance of female-owned businesses
The performance of small businesses, that is their ability to contribute to employment and wealth creation through business start-up, survival and growth, is an important policy and academic debate. Comparatively …
The management and financing of female-owned businesses
In an attempt to refocus the research effort away from broad descriptions of the personal and business characteristics of female entrepreneurs, throughout the 1990s increasing attention was given to the …
The characteristics and experiences of female entrepreneurs
Little was known about the female entrepreneur until the mid-1980s. Although many studies had been undertaken investigating small business owners, the bulk of the work concentrated upon the male-owned enterprise …
The growth of female entrepreneurship
Over the past 30 years there have been increases in the number of women entering selfemployment and business ownership, although the rate of increase has varied widely from country to …
Gender and enterprise
Research investigating women’s ownership of small businesses essentially dates from the mid-1970s. Prior to the pioneering studies of Schreier (1973) and Schwartz (1976), the contribution women made to the small …
Gender and entrepreneurship
Sara Carter and Dinah Bennett 9.1 Introduction Over the past 30 years two parallel trends have occurred. First, in almost every country in the world there has been growth in …
Cognitive models of entrepreneurial behaviour
There is a need for an individual-level understanding of the processes leading to entrepreneurial behaviour that has not been met by studies of individual traits. Research, as stated earlier, has …
Individual characteristics of entrepreneurs
This section describes some of the individual characteristics that are supposedly related to entrepreneurs and the intention to pursue an entrepreneurial career: ■ risk-taking propensity ■ need for achievement ■ …
The development of the field of entrepreneurial personality and behaviour
Figure 8.1 illustrates the complexity and the inherent problems associated with the psychological perspective. It is composed of four boxes each containing a basic question relating to the research field …
The entrepreneurial personality
The personality of the entrepreneur is often perceived by students and practitioners as one of the most fascinating topics in the field of entrepreneurship. The reason for this is the …
The psychology of the entrepreneur
Frederic Delmar 8.1 Introduction In this chapter, evidence on the entrepreneurial personality and behaviour is reviewed. It begins by describing how this area has evolved until now, concentrating on different …
Which process is better?
So, which is preferable - the planned and systematic or the experimental and flexible? There is some evidence that directed and systematic search is possible and, on average, leads to …
The effectuation process: an alternative entrepreneurial logic?
A recurrent theme in this exposition has been the tension between the structured, planned and systematic on the one hand, and the emerging, iterative and somewhat chaotic on the other. …
The relationship between discovery and exploitation
Above it was noted that just because an idea originates with independent individual(s) it does not have to be exploited as an independent start-up, and just because an idea emerges …
The exploitation process
Unless perhaps when the exploitation of the business idea consists of a one-off outright sale to another organisation, exploitation, like discovery, is a process. It evolves over time. As used …
The discovery process
As pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, ‘discovery’ is used for the ideas side of business development, as opposed to the realisation side, which is called ‘exploitation’. It …
The entrepreneurial process
Per Davidsson 7.1 Introduction This chapter will focus on research-based insights into the entrepreneurial process. By that is meant the process of setting up a new business activity resulting in …
The entrepreneur
Chapter summary
Growth-oriented small businesses make a major contribution to economic development and employment generation within local communities and are a crucial engine for the development of national economies. For this reason …
Managing growth
Since one of the major challenges facing the contemporary small business is that of coping with unknowable, unpredictable open-ended change, a key issue relates to how small firms attempt to …
Barriers and growth constraints — the internal operating context
This section reviews some of the major internal constraints which affect growth in the small firm. These relate to the influence of the owner-manager and the relative small scale of …
