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Råsbrant, Jonas, i Martin Holmén. "Owner-Managers’ Equity Portfolio Choice". KTH, Industriell dynamik (Stängd 20130101), 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-122243.
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Some studies have shown that managers concentrate large fractions of their wealth in the equity of their own firm. In this paper we use a unique dataset and investigate how Swedish owner-managers invest remaining wealth conditional on a major investment in their own firm. We find no[JR1] evidence that owner-managers seek diversification benefits when they invest remaining wealth. Instead some owner-managers invest remaining wealth in the industry where they already have a substantial capital investment. We conclude that some owner-managers seek to exploit their industry-specific superior information when they invest wealth not tied up in their own firms.QC 20130515
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Lightfoot, Geoffrey. "Financial management and small firm owner-managers". Thesis, Kingston University, 1998. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/20617/.
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This study investigates financial management and small firms through considering some of the financial concepts that are used by owner-managers, their meanings and the relationships between them. At the same time, it examines the contexts through which these concepts are given meaning - how, for example, the business, the owner-manager and the environment have to be constituted for the concepts to have the meanings they are given. Particular attention is given to the rhetorical constructions that allow the emplacement of certain financial management procedures in small firms to the exclusion of others. In this it differs from existing research into small firms which the study depicts as being locked in to a paradigm of 'best practice' that has both unflatteringly compared procedures in small firms with an idealisation of practices in large firms and proceeded to quantify difference rather than attempt to explain it. The study used discourse analysis procedures to examine two key areas: pricing and cashflow management. From this a number of conclusions are offered as to owner-managers' organisation of their businesses. The principal findings are fourfold. Owner-managers are able to create and manage the interplay between formal accounting procedures with both informal knowledge about the business and wider moral and social conventions in ways that blur such distinctions and emphasise both personal authority and business legitimacy. Secondly, the study shows that as this informal knowledge is often grounded in the owner-manager, ownership and knowledge derived from ownership help define the owner-manager's authority in such a way that external advice is made of limited use or irrelevant. Third, value in the business is revealed as both movable and reflexive. Owner-managers use the prices that they set, for example, as a measure of their own worth and of wider status considerations. Finally, the flexibility in the use of formal and informal knowledge allows the owner-manager freedom to define some areas as calculable (and so subject to 'rational' decision-making) and others 'unknowable' (and thus subject to personal, subjective relationships). As the future is typically rendered 'unknowable' this both allows different treatments of suppliers and customers and helps explain issues such as why owner-managers apparently resist blandishments to increase their planning activities.
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Shailer, G. E. P. "Contextualising the performance of owner-managed firms : a conceptual framework based on owner-managers' objectives /". Title page, contents and introduction only, 1996. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phs526.pdf.
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Dragoi-Wilkinson, Ana Ruxanda A. "The learning of small business owner-managers through networking". Thesis, University of Derby, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10545/211790.
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The research establishes a preliminary characterisation of the learning of small business owner-managers in the context of their business networks. It does this grounded in data derived from the extant general literature on learning, the specific literatures of general managerial learning and the learning of small business people. Critical observation and the results of a pilot study augment this data. The preliminary characterisation is then further refined by reference to five established business networks located in the Midlands of England. The methodology employed follows a triangulation strategy of positivist and phenomenological components. It utilises the potentials of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Discourse Analysis (DA) to these ends. 136 small business owner-managers, located within their respective networks,, responded to a prepared SNA questionnaire and to in-depth interviews. The SNA data collected is subjected to Social Network Analysis to identify measures of actor centrality, degree, closeness and betweennirss. - This is performed across five relations measuring communication, connections, advice, importance and learning. Positional analysis and multi-dimensional scaling are then used to confirm four groups within each network, which is consistent with the preliminary characterisation. Discourse Analysis emphasises language as a basic form of interaction within networks. From the record of in-depth interviews, and vocabularies related to the learning of ownermanagers, 39 discoursive texts are identified and analysed. These texts also reveal four groups of actors within each network. From this evidence, which corroborates the results of SNA, it is possible to label these groups as Learning Facilitators/ Learners, Learners, Floaters and Traders. Together with SNA evidence, DA also allows the learning characteristics of each group to be -described. The research has several implications for the theory of learning in this context. For the first time, it establishes from empirical evidence the forms and degrees of learning occurring within such business networks. It has importance for the learning of ownermanagers themselves, educators/ trainers and also policy makers. Based on the research findings learning action plans for each of these stakeholder groups are suggested
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Dlodlo, N., i C. Mafini. "Internet marketing benefits for South African SME owner-managers". Journal for New Generation Sciences, Vol 12, Issue 1: Central University of Technology, Free State, Bloemfontein, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/651.
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Published ArticleWith the recent explosion of global marketing strategies, business enterprises have to contend with severe and escalating competition. To sustain competitiveness, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa should produce high-quality, customised goods and services efficiently. Adoption of Internet marketing technologies is fundamental towards meeting this challenge. However, the adoption and diffusion of technologies in marketing practices is the outcome of purposeful processes emanating from the realisation by SMEs that adoption of these technologies yields significant paybacks. The purpose of this study was to establish the managers' perceptions of the benefits of Internet marketing adoption in small and medium enterprises. Using a quantitative approach, a questionnaire was administered to owner-managers of small and medium enterprises in the Vaal Triangle in South Africa. A total of 269 questionnaires were completed, returned and considered useful for the survey. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis in order to establish the factors considered to be the salient Internet marketing benefits. Four underlying factors were extracted namely: customer relationship building, information gathering, promotion and enhanced productivity. The mean scores indicated that information gathering was perceived as most important, but after sturdier tests for association were applied to the data set, customer relationship management demonstrated the most significant and positive correlation with SME productivity. As such, there is need for the small and medium enterprises to develop strategies to expand and sustain the identified benefits of Internet marketing.
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O'Reilly, C. "Identifying management competencies of hotel owner-managers & general managers in the Republic of Ireland". Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2015. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27725/.
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The objective of this research was to investigate the concept of competencies, explore and identify the management competencies of hotel owner-managers and general managers in the hospitality industry in the Republic of Ireland. In other words, this research explored how hotel owner-managers and general managers identified, interpreted and made sense of their notion of managerial competencies in a complex work environment. The research was set within the context of the Irish hospitality and tourism industry, specifically within the hotel sector which has experienced a socio-economic crisis and periods of significant change. Hotels in the Republic of Ireland play a key role in its economic and cultural life, as Ireland has earned an international reputation for welcoming visitors from across the globe. This study drew on a social constructionism ontology: an interpretative epistemology with a theoretical perspective that framed the methodology using qualitative data analysis and interpretation. Qualitative data, with its emphasis on ‘people’s lived experience are well suited for locating the meanings they place on events, processes and structures of their lives, and for connecting these meanings to the social world around the’ (Miles & Huberman, 1994:10). The data was collected from interviews with twelve hotel owners and general managers in the Republic of Ireland. Three interdependent themes including managing hospitality services in hotels, staff, and language of emotion emerged. The thematic analysis was analysed using Weick’s sensemaking framework to garner meanings that are socially constructed through their lived experience of work. These three themes were woven together across two broad lines of enquiry: 1. How hotel owner-managers and general managers identified and used their qualities and the language of emotion together with skills and knowledge to manage employees to deliver hospitality services internally in hotels punctuated by a complex external business environment. 2. How hoteliers made sense of self-identity and occupational identities in their efforts to become competent hotel owner-managers and general managers in the hospitality industry in Ireland. The findings reveal evidence pointing towards a social constructionist process (Berger & Luckmann 1966) through which these hoteliers constructed their realities of clusters of management competencies using a combination of learned skills and knowledge underpinned by qualities and emotions. It examined these competency clusters of qualities such as honesty, integrity, respect, a positive attitude, intrinsic care, and intuition whilst the role of emotions such as care, empathy and support were used to build relationships as key skills in managing employees and customers alike. Alongside these, clusters of skills included communication, financial and cost management and technology and managing people as well as facilities management. Finally, it was argued that taken together in what constitutes competence these clusters of qualities, emotions, skills and knowledge were conceptualised that these are the building blocks for assembling a competent identity of self-fused into the occupational identity of an hotelier, be they an owner-manager or general manager.
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Werner, Andrea. "An investigation into Christian SME owner-managers' conceptualisations of practice". Thesis, Brunel University, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.436495.
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Morel, d'Arleux Corinne. "Re-constructing success : a perspective from small firms' owner-managers". Thesis, Open University, 2000. http://oro.open.ac.uk/58069/.
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The present dissertation is composed of two main parts. The first step lies in a conceptualisation research effort, which aims at re-constructing success and providing a new understanding of success as a subjective, individual-based concept encompassing three dimensions : professional, familial and personal success. Success is defined as : an ideal state of global satisfaction that may relate to family, personal or work fulfilment feelings, according to individual preferences. The second part is an empirical study which is designed to illustrate this conceptual framework and contribute to extend our knowledge on small firms owner-managers' visions of success. An evaluation method, based on the Index for Global Success (IGS), is elaborated for that purpose. Three analyses are developed : the first one describes the respondents' global characteristics and visions of success, the second study explores males' and females' visions of success, and the last one applies the IGS method to compare high- and low success perceivers, test the link between IGS, business performance and individual satisfaction, and thus test the IGS method relevance. The findings prove that success needs to be studied at the individual's level as a subjective construct and that the use of a composite index to evaluate success enables the gathering of overlapping dimensions composing success. The importance of personal and familial dimensions, beyond professional success, receives empirical support. Females appear to have different visions of success than males, placing higher concern on the personal dimension. Finally, the Index for Global Success enables the testing of subsamples which differ in their levels of satisfaction and firm's performance. Statistical analyses establish that `success' (evaluated through the Index for Global Success), business performance and individual satisfaction are positively correlated. It is concluded that the IGS method is a relevant tool to evaluate success, and that success is a complex rather than simple unidimensional construct.
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Logan, Julie Margarita. "Entrepreneurial success : a study of the incidence of dyslexia in the entrepreneurial population and the influence of dyslexia upon the entrepreneur". Thesis, University of Bristol, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.368641.
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Mahmood, Abdullah. "Educational interests and needs of owner-managers of small building firms". Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/786.
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This thesis discusses a critical investigation into the educational needs and interests of owner-managers of small firms. The investigation attempted to determine, from the viewpoint of the small business owner-managers, those critical factors which affected and influenced their interest in and appreciation of education and training, as well as identifying areas of interest for future training. A survey was taken of a small sectoral sample of 58 building firms within the Central Belt of Scotland, 20 of whose owner-managers were assessed in detail using the Repertory Grid and Personal Project techniques. The results of the study indicated a general lack of interests in education and training among the small business owner-managers sampled. These lack of interests were influenced by seven major factors; owner-managers evaluation of education and training, their attitudes towards education and educational establishments, personality characteristics, limitation of resources, lack of formal education, lack of awareness of educational provisions and the characteristics of training proOvider. Other important factors influencing training were the timing of courses, the identity and reputation of training personnel and the course format. In terms of areas for future training, the ten most important areas were identified by the owner-managers. These were, in ranked order of interest; Production Planning and Control, Site Organisation, Employee Supervision, Cost Control, Business Planning, Working Capital Management, Health and Safety, Quality Control, Estimating and Costing and Financial Planning.
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Fu, Jinyi. "Financing and Debt Maturity Choices by Undiversified Owner-Managers: Theory and Evidence". Diss., Available online, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006, 2006. http://etd.gatech.edu/theses/available/etd-07092006-201009/.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007.Dr. Rajesh Chakrabarti, Committee Member ; Dr. Narayanan Jayaraman, Committee Co-Chair ; Dr. Jonathan Clarke, Committee Member ; Dr. Ajay Subramanian, Committee Co-Chair ; Dr. Richard Phillips, Committee Member.
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Yucedogru, Recep. "Understanding tax morale and tax compliance of owner-managers of small companies". Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33993/.
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Owner managers of small companies (OMSCs) present an important group for tax research, as they constitute a majority of taxpayers, although little is known about their tax compliance behaviour. Hence, the key purpose of this study is to understand how OMSCs’ tax compliance and tax morale, intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, are shaped through their social roles: as an individual and as a manager. Moreover, the study explores the influential factors on OMSCs’ tax morale such as religiosity. This study is particularly important for providing a detailed picture of the factors that are key to successful tax compliance, which might help OMSCs and policy design. Additionally, it is one of the first studies to understand OMSCs’ tax morale, particularly the first one in the context of Turkey, with a predominant by Muslim population. This study is based on three phases. First, the OMSCs’ tax morale model is developed building on the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In this phase, the factors that are grouped under Personal Norms, Corporate Norms and Perceived Behavioural Control are identified with the critical review of literature and their influences on OMSCs’ tax morale and tax compliance are discussed. Next, in the qualitative exploratory phase of the research, the model’s relevance to the research context is confirmed and necessary modifications to the model are made according to the results of the thematic analysis of 20 face to face interviews with OMSCs. The third phase comprised the confirmatory phase of the research. Based on 447 responses from an on-line survey, the model was tested using Structural Equation Modelling via Partial Least Squares. The results of this study show a strong positive relationship between tax morale and tax compliance of OMSCs. Interestingly, the most influential factor in predicting and explaining tax morale are Personal Norms, which refer to OMSCs’ personal beliefs and values, including religiosity. In contrast, Corporate Norms, which refer to normative beliefs of an OMSC about his/her company, were found to be affecting negatively on tax morale but in terms of magnitude are far less influential than Personal Norms. Perceived Behavioural Control positively influences tax morale but again to a smaller extent compared to Personal Norms. These findings suggest that OMSCs’ personal beliefs and values are the main determinant of their tax compliance behaviour rather than their corporate concerns. Overall, the current study illustrates how tax morale and tax compliance of OMSCs are shaped by using the model that utilises the factors that are discussed in the literature alongside additional factors that have emerged from the qualitative phase of this study. The model benefits policy makers by portraying OMSCs’ tax morale that might help policymakers to identify problems and aid them in devising policies to improve tax compliance of OMSC.
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Anderson-Marks, Michelle. "The decision making processes of small business owner-managers : an environmental focus". Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/861.
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Large business is often the focus when environmental issues are discussed because their individual impact on the environment is viewed as larger than that of the smaller business. However due to the large size of the small business sector it has been recognised that reducing their collective impact is critical to achieving a sustainable future. A lack of engagement by small businesses in environmental management invoked an interest in understanding how to better engage the owner-managers in this area, but more specifically what influenced their decision.
With an emphasis on the day to day running of the business, many small business owner-managers place more emphasis on core business operations and often neglect the impact their business has on the natural environment. Considering 96% of all business in Australia is classified as small, their collective impact on the natural environment is significant. As many small business owner-managers see their environmental impact as minimal, improving their environmental behaviour is challenging.
The aim of this study was therefore to explore the decision making approaches of the small business owner-manager to environmental management issues. Nine small businesses from three industries were chosen and using the Critical Incident Technique to explore their decision making process, this study sought to understand from the owner-managers perspective how and why business decisions are made. Semi structured interviews were used to identify the decision making approaches for four different business decisions: economic, legislative, social and environmental. Over a series of interviews the owner-managers were able to freely describe their decision process and rich data was able to be obtained.
Results indicated that owner-managers base business decisions on many factors and use a range of decision making styles depending on the type, and importance, of the decision to be made, that is core business decision are more often rationally made, whilst discretionary decisions will often be made intuitively based on the information at hand. Therefore to better engage them in ways to improve environmental management practices, increasing the knowledge and understanding to the benefits of these improvements is imperative. In addition this information is more readily accepted when the information is relevant to their business and presented in a clear manner by someone with whom the owner-manager has established a pre-existing relationship.
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McLaren-Thomson, Annabelle April. "Small tourism businesses in rural Scotland : exploring owner-managers' understandings of social sustainability". Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9907.
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Tourism plays an ever more important role in Scotland's rural economy. Although the tourism industry in rural areas is typically presented by small firms, knowledge of their role in sustainable rural development is limited. In particular, there has been little discussion about small tourism businesses' (STB) contribution to social sustainability (SS). However, the literature suggests that STBs can contribute to SS through their relationship with the local community. While there is evidence to indicate that owner- managers' (OM) views and beliefs relate to their business' relationship with the local community, this aspect has received little attention by STB scholars to date. This thesis explores how STB OMs' views of their business' local community and its relationship with it can contribute to developing a better understanding of STBs' role in SS. The research is informed by an interpretive-constructionist paradigm, and seeks to examine OMs' views from a different angle. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 OMs of small accommodation businesses across 19 villages and towns in three rural areas in Scotland. These were specifically selected for their differences regarding the geographic, economic and policy environment. Participants' responses were analysed inductively and deductively to explore differences in their views, and to examine how their understandings reflect the current conceptualisation of lifestyle and profit oriented STB OMs. The results showed that the bifurcated conceptualisation of OMs was unsuitable for addressing the research aim. An inductive threefold typology of OMs emerged based on their views of their business' local community and its relationship with it. Notably, the typology revealed additional and critical differences in OMs' understandings to those that emerged from the deductive analysis of lifestyle and profit oriented OMs' views. The differences revealed by the new typology have implications for STBs' potential to contribute to SS locally and in the wider area.
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Stewart, Wayne H. (Wayne Howard). "Small Business Owner-Managers and Corporate Managers: a Comparative Study of Achievement Motivation, Risk Taking Propensity and Preference for Innovation". Thesis, University of North Texas, 1995. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277602/.
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Despite the economic significance of entrepreneurship, relatively little is known about the entrepreneur, particularly how the entrepreneur differs from the corporate manager. This problem is both cause and symptom of the discord regarding definitions of the entrepreneur, rendering sampling, research replication and generalizations about entrepreneurs problematic. As a result, inquiry has failed to adequately establish how entrepreneurs differ from managers, a problem partially stemming from a dearth of methodologically rigorous comparisons of entrepreneurs with managers. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of psychological constructs to predict a proclivity for entrepreneurship. Moreover, differences in types of small business owner-managers were also investigated. Included in the research model were three common themes in the entrepreneurship literature: achievement motivation, risk taking propensity and preference for innovation. Also incorporated were the interactions of the psychological constructs, as well as individual and firm demographic variables.
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Ahmad, Ghazali. "Small firm network in tourism and hospitality : chalet firms and its owner-managers networks". Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2005. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21601.
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Firms participate in network relationships with others to access resources that are not otherwise available. The resources may consist of goods, services, information, advice or support. This flow of resources into a firm has the potential to enhance the capability of a firm to react to the external competitive environment. Generally network relationships can be formal and/or informal. For a small firm, a network is more likely to be informal and have social links with individuals such as family, friends and acquaintances. This thesis investigates the network features and networking activities of small tourism and hospitality firms. The context of the research is that of owner-managers of chalet accommodation firms located at coastal and island destinations in the east of Peninsular Malaysia. Thirty-seven chalet owner-managers were interviewed face-to-face, using standardised interview questions and procedures, and case protocol. The research found that chalet firms were set-up mainly for economic motives rather that for lifestyle motives. The networks are composed of family and ethnic links and predominantly bounded by specific localities such as the 'village'. Informal ties are with those with a common interest in tourism products and services within a destination. The networks' contacts for business and social purposes consist of the same people. They represent less diverse, low cost and low maintenance networks. Chalet owner-managers became attached to family for financial reasons and to friends for other matters throughout their business life. This was due to the trust that was built up through the years of the relationship, which led to strong ties. The main reason for networking with the contacts was to exchange ideas, advice, and help. The local culture and religious believes have some influence in the selection of network members, network content and networking motivation as well as become guidelines in the networking activities.
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O'Rourke, Brendan Kevin. "The dichotomous unity of enterprise-strategy discourse in interviews with small-firm owner-managers". Thesis, Brunel University, 2009. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/3359.
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This thesis adds to the literature on strategy and enterprise discourses by analysing how they are used in interviews with small-firm owner-managers. The literature describes features of strategy and enterprise discourses and their shaping by historical developments. There is much work on the operation of these two discourses at societal and large-organisation levels. Much less researched is how these discourses are used by small-firm managers or how these discourses interact in use. This work characterises a particular discourse-analytical approach to the research interview as suitable for advancing the literature. Small, young publishing firms producing business magazines in late ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland are argued as an apposite context. Detailed analysis of three selected interviews illustrates the relevance of enterprise and strategy discourses in the particular ways these owner-managers talk. Drawing on the notion of ideological dilemmas, this work gives an explicit account of how strategy and enterprise discourses are used and interrelated in a manner described here as a ‘dichotomous unity’. This unity depends not only on the discourses’ commonalities but also on the dilemmatic tensions between them. These tensions allow creative and subtle uses of the unified discourse. Yet these same dilemmas also constrain the discourse within the bounds marked out by them. The persistence and creativity, noted by the literature, in the use of enterprise and strategy discourses is explained by the interpretation offered here. This work also stresses the need to research these discourses as two aspects of the same phenomenon. The interview method used reveals the wholeness of a discourse that other methods might show as fractured. Discourse analysts generally recognise that people both shape, and are shaped by discourses. By explicating how strategy and enterprise discourses operate, this work adds to human agency. Small-firm managers may become more aware of the constraints otherwise implicit in enterprise-strategy discourse. Policymakers may gain an appreciation of the discursive balance that the promotion of enterprise and strategy demands of small-business managers, along with the kind of costs such balancing might entail.
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Doern, Rachel R. "Understanding barriers to small business growth from the perspective of owner-managers in Russia". Thesis, St Andrews, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/546.
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Prior, Gerard Anthony. "Facilitating individualised learning solutions : the case of hospitality and tourism owner/managers in Greater Belfast". Thesis, University of Leicester, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/37194.
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This research addresses the question: How can the facilitation of individualised learning solutions for SME owner/managers be reconceptualised? In answering this question a questionnaire was utilised within a comparative case study design to conduct semistructured interviews. Subjects were drawn from a diverse range of hospitality and tourism firms including hotels, guest houses, pub/restaurants, coffee shops and a brewery. The research addresses wider issues affecting training and learning contexts rather than simply training alternatives. Such issues included, conceptions of learning, workplace learning environments, owner/learner identity, managerial skills and entrepreneurial talent. Consequently, conclusions were drawn highlighting that accessing learning solutions must be driven by the owner/manager. Such learning is identified as being available within the workplace or from the accessible open curriculum of the external environment. This open curriculum includes, working in other organizations, visiting benchmark firms as customers, accessing existing, or devising individualised training courses. This led to the development of the ‘owner/manager learner access model’ which reconceptualises how the owner/manager can move towards accessing individualised learning solutions. The model illustrates the positions of owner/managers in relation to their relative levels of activity in pursuing self-generated access to learning. From this, the requirement of a new layer of learning to help owner/managers develop a propensity for the acquisition of learning is identified. This layer is suggested as a pre-requisite to training in specific managerial skills. It involves equipping the owner/manager with the capacity to identify sources of new knowledge and skills and the ability to gain access to them. Two additional conclusions then emerge. Firstly, the ability to access self-generated learning is an entrepreneurial trait. Secondly, there is a link between delegation and moving to the domain of the self-generated learner. Delegation allows the time necessary to identify, develop and participate in new learning activities.
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O'Connell, J. "A retrospective study of the problems encountered by small business owner-managers in the health sector". Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/429.
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It is estimated that the failure rate of small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa’s (SMME’s) are between 70 percent and 80 percent. As a result, millions of rand are lost on business ventures because of essentially avoidable mistakes and problems. Difficulties encountered by small business owner-managers can be described as environmental, marketing, financial or managerial in nature. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the nature and importance of problems experience by small business owner-managers in the private health sector. The design that was used in this study was qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual in nature. This study fell within the broad framework of qualitative research, as interviews were employed to do the research project (Baker, 1999:247). A purposive sample was used to identify the participants for inclusion. The target population was small business owner-managers operating within the private health sector in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The sample comprised eight business owner-managers in the health sector within the boundaries of the Nelson Mandela Metropole, purposely identified. Before doing the empirical research, a pilot study was conducted with one small business owner-manager that fulfilled the required criteria of the research population. Data was collected by means of naïve sketches and semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994). Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991) was employed for data verification. Interviews were conducted in both Afrikaans and English. iii Direct transcriptions from the tape-recorded interviews ensured that all data was gathered and saved for reference when needed during the data analysis as described by Field and Morse (1996:64). The researcher took observational, theoretical, methodological and personal notes as described in Wilson (1989: 433-435). Transcriptions from sketches and interviews served as the database for the study. Only literature pertaining to the research process was consulted prior to the data collection of the primary data, in order to establish an effective research format. The problems experienced by small business owner-managers in the health sector were discussed under four major themes and several sub-themes identified by the researcher and the independent coder. The main themes that emerged from the study were: small business ownermanagers in the health sector lacked business skills and experience; had financial problems regarding their businesses; had difficulty building a customer base; and were uncertain in terms of their businesses’ future. Conclusions were drawn from the findings of the study and limiting factors were identified and acknowledged in the report. Recommendations that could assist practitioners, educators and trainers were suggested.
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Uygur, Selcuk. "The influence of religion over work ethic values : the case of Islam and Turkish SME owner-managers". Thesis, Brunel University, 2009. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/4396.
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The aim of this thesis is to explore the influence of religion on the work ethic values of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers in Turkey. The emergence of religious/pious business people in Turkey has been regarded as a phenomenon. This research pays special attention to the religious transformation and secularism in Turkey. It is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 32 Turkish SME owner-managers. The sample of the study has been divided into two groups: The practicing Muslim Turkish managers (the religious group), and non/less practicing Muslim Turkish managers (the secular group). Discourse analysis of the qualitative data, first, clarifies where to seek the religious influence on business activities. It indicates that the influence of religion should be sought within individuals‘ conduct/manner of living leading the moral values and the mentalities of the business people, rather than seeking cause and affect relationship. The contemporary Islamic interpretation in Turkey, as it is called Turkish/Anatolian interpretation of Islam, is found to re-shape the existing teachings of the religion and reproduce the religious structure through the practices. In this respect, five distinguishing characteristics emerged as signs of the religious influence behind the pious business people‘s actions: Hard work as an Islamic duty, good will (intention), responsibility, bounty/benevolence and the balance/equilibrium in one‘s life. It is also observed that the new Islamic discourse in Turkey provides moral energy exclusively for the religious business people in terms of influencing and encouraging entrepreneurial activities. Meanwhile, the study demonstrates that the work ethic values of the religious Turkish SME owner-managers have been evolving to be more rational and professional, especially after the 1980s liberal economy. This transformation has been evaluated within the concept of secularisation.
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Seeler, Juergen-Matthias [Verfasser]. "Business Ethics and Stakeholder Management: Developing a Structured Approach for Small Business' Owner-Managers / Juergen-Matthias Seeler". München : GRIN Verlag, 2012. http://d-nb.info/1182768164/34.
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Salzberg, Anna. "ADOPTING SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATIONS IN RESTAURANTS: An Evaluation of the Factors Influencing Owner-Managers’ Decisions in Richmond, Virginia". VCU Scholars Compass, 2016. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4575.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing restaurant Owner-Managers’ decisions to adopt sustainability innovations in restaurants. A cross-sectional survey research design is used for this study, which entails distributing a survey to restaurants in the City of Richmond, Virginia, to gain an understanding of the factors influencing sustainability innovation adoption. Drawing from both the innovation adoption theory and the theory of planned behavior, the researcher contributes a baseline of the restaurants’ sustainability and the Owner-Managers’ intrinsic motivations. By integrating innovation adoption theory’s perceived innovation characteristics and measuring restaurants’ past sustainability behavior, this study increases the overall explanatory power of the theory of planned behavior. The findings demonstrate the need for new policy that effectively increases the rate of sustainability innovation adoption throughout Richmond’s restaurant industry. This study’s baseline contribution enables policymakers to move from planning to the implementation of the initiatives needed to achieve the economic development goal and first objective detailed in the City of Richmond’s sustainability plan, RVAgreen: A Roadmap to Sustainability (2011).
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Pachulia, Gocha, i Laura Henderson. "The relationship betweenEmotional Intelligence and Entrepreneurial Orientation : Observed within owner-managers who lead small, high-tech firms in Sweden". Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Business Administration, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-10297.
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Problem: Is there a statistically significant relationship between the EI of an ownermanager and the EO within a small firm?
Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to perform an exploratory study of the research by addressing the first hypothesis. The secondary purpose of this study was to characterize the nature of this relationship by exploring micro-connections between EI and EO factors, by addressing the second hypothesis.
Hypotheses: 1) An owner-manager’s EI can be used to predict EO within small firms. 2) An owner-managers’ EI dimensions are positively correlated to the EO dimensions in small firms.
Method: A questionnaire including the EISDI (Emotional Intelligence) instrument and the Covin & Slevin (1989) Entrepreneurial Orientation (entrepreneurial/strategic posture) instrument were sent by email to respondents. Responses were collected from a sample of 35 respondents, who were identified as owner-managers of small, young firms within the Swedish high-tech industry. An empirical analysis examined correlations between global EI and global EO, as well as EI and EO factors.
Main findings: Both hypotheses were rejected. It was concluded that an owner-manager’s EI cannot be used to predict EO within small firms. Moreover, it was found that no part of an owner-manager’s EI is significantly nor strongly correlated to EO dimensions within small firms.
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David, Hefin. "The reluctant employer : an exploration of the first employment decisions and early employment experiences of small business owner-managers". Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2013. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/5373/.
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The broad aim of the research presented in this thesis was to explore the process by which small firm owner-managers become employers, their early experiences as employers and the impact of these experiences on their subsequent management decisions. The research topic derived from the researcher’s interests and experience in human resource management and small business and was designed to contribute to a richer understanding of early employment in small firms, as there was a lack of published research in the field. The study used an interpretive, qualitative approach. The research design derived from an analysis of four pilot interviews, in which issues emerged that were then explored in the literature review. These issues included motivation to become an employer; the use of social capital within networks as an alternative to employment; the experiences and learning process of the owner-manager during and after the decision to become an employer; and subsequent employment policy and behaviour. The main fieldwork comprised a further fifteen semi-structured interviews with micro-business owner-managers, eight of whom had become employers and seven who had not. The analysis of both the pilot and subsequent interviews was conducted through thematic analysis that gave rise to approximately fifty themes. These were then reduced on the basis of inter-case frequency to ten key issues. A ‘thick description’ of these was presented and used as the basis for the development of a model of the process, as presented in Chapter Five. The findings highlighted the use of social capital as an alternative to initial staff employment, that once exhausted led to the hiring of first employees by members of the ‘employer’ sample, most of whom could be characterised as ‘reluctant employers’. Contrary to expectations, the first employment experience was not of high salience to the majority of these owner- managers. Instead, the later experiences of employment were perceived by the employers to be of greater significance, in particular the emergence of skilled and trustworthy employees enabling the gradual development of early formal structures in the firm. In some cases, such an employee was perceived as significantly contributing to the business and its growth potential - one who in the thesis is referred to as ‘first line manager’ These positive experiences of employment tended to be self-reinforcing, leading to further enhancement of the owner-managers’ self-concept as employers and bringing some stability and formality to employment relations practices within the firm, with the characteristics of these employees tending to become informal templates for further employment decisions. In developing the model, an understanding is advanced of the various tensions to which owner-managers were subjected in becoming employers. These included finding a balance between the use of social capital versus employment, the desire to recruit versus perceptions of the risk of needing to terminate employment, the benefits of additional human capital versus the costs and other risks, and different degrees of formality in employment practices. The implications of these insights are profound, in the light of the need to facilitate employment in small firms. They point to ways that support practices might be better tailored to meet the needs of this significantly large group of owner managers. It is suggested that through sustained engagement and mechanisms which serve to support owner-managers in the development of social and business networks, both social and economic benefits will be accrued.
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Steele, Laura. "Corporate social capital creation and transfer among small to medium sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers in two recreational settings". Thesis, Ulster University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.603574.
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Corporate Social Capital theory has been used as a prism through which diverse economic issues have been explored (Leenders and Gabbay 1999). This thesis draws upon it once again, to provide a framework for understanding the attitudes to business networking held by the owner-managers of Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Northern Ireland. Using a multiple case study approach as outlined by Yin (2009), the research was conducted in Rotary clubs and golf clubs, which have traditionally fostered such exchanges but in secondary function to wider social welfare or sporting aims. Through the use of in-depth interviews the individual's opportunities to engage with others, motivation for doing so and ability to produce value from the interactions were explored (Adler and Kwon 2002). Respondents provided clear examples of when their business had benefited (or indeed suffered) as the result of their social network. The overarching themes emerging from the data are increased access to information that could be converted into competitive advantage and the accelerated development of trust among network members. This, however, was tempered by frequent mention of the ‘dark side' (Gargiulo and Benassi 1999) where an unpropitious reputation is easy to form but difficult to shed and the very idea of overt networking is still considered by some to be uncouth. The research identified five factors that impacted on an individual SME owner-managers ability to generate social capital, specifically: the location and age profile of the club and the gender/ occupation and personality of the SME owner-manager. This thesis provides a new perspective on the experiences of the SME owner-manager in a time of continued economic uncertainty.
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Rainford, Sophie Elizabeth. "Environmental Management in Micro and Small Tourism Enterprises: An Owner-manager Perspective". The University of Waikato, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2283.
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This thesis seeks to gain insight into environmental management implemented by micro and small tourism enterprises and explore levels of awareness and interest among owner-managers of micro and small tourism enterprises toward schemes aiming for the environmental improvement of business. The research uncovers findings that elevate possibilities for reducing misinterpretation of terminology relative to sustainable tourism business. This research seeks to understand why the suggested lack of sustainable tourism implementation remains evident in tourism. Discussion from findings intends to draw attention to central themes relative to achieving research objectives and seeks to yield important information in the pursuit of sustainable tourism business. A qualitative, semi-structured interview approach was used to gain in-depth and detailed perspectives from owner-managers of micro and small tourism enterprises. Owner-managers interviewed were purposively chosen using non-probability sampling. Selection was based on providing a variety of tourism businesses and physical business locations across the case study region. Overall, findings suggest that owner-managers are implementing low levels of environmental management and have limited knowledge of what implementation of environmental management specifically involves, such as, how long it takes and how much it costs. The underlying values of owner-managers demonstrate potential opportunities for further implementation of sustainable business practice. In addition, owner-managers seemed to place importance in conducting business responsibly and having minimal impact on the environment so that quality of life remains for future generations. Essentially, research findings aid in the understanding of why the suggested lack of sustainable tourism implementation remains evident in tourism and pose future avenues for research in the pursuit of sustainable tourism business.
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Smith, Tara Laureen. "A qualitative analysis of small business owner-managers' participation and learning in an online discussion forum : not quite paradise found". Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2012. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/502.
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Small business owner-managers (SBOMs) are a difficult group to engage in formal face-to-face training and learning activities. Research to encourage SBOMs' participation has focused on two main themes: first, trying to ascertain why they do not attend training and, second, determining their learning preferences. They are reluctant to attend formal training because they prioritise business operations (no time to attend training), perceive training as a poor return on investment, have negative perceptions of training and education, and believe the training provision often does not meet their needs. In terms of their learning preferences, it is clear that SBOMs prefer informal, network-based, experiential and problem-oriented learning. As such, efforts to increase SBOMs‘ engagement in training and learning should focus on trying to incorporate these learning preferences while endeavouring to overcome their rationale for not attending formal training. In this thesis, the focus is on the provision a free, informal, voluntary, online discussion forum (ODF) for SBOMs as an alternative to face-to-face training. The ODF provided an alternative to formal face-to-face training and enabled informal, voluntary, networkbased learning for SBOMs that met their learning preferences for experiential and problem-oriented learning. The ODF also overcame their reasons for not attending faceto- face training and enabled SBOMs to learn in an informal way, with and from each other‘s experiences, without having to leave their business operations. This approach was expected to promote the greater engagement of SBOMs in learning. This cross-disciplinary study brings together elements of educational psychology in terms of learning theory and the emerging theories of online learning. It also takes a business and management perspective in applying these theories in small firm context. The study involved the development of an asynchronous ODF, which was guided by the literature regarding SBOMs‘ training and learning, learning theory, online learning and, in particular, the importance of discussion for promoting relevant, authentic learning that enables interaction and reflection. The ODF provided a learner-centred approach to learning that encouraged active learning based on social interaction through discussion. Discussion was based on problems, issues and questions posted by SBOMs in the online network and answered by the knowledge and experience of other SBOM members of the network. As such, the ODF provided learning that was relevant, authentic and interactive and that encouraged reflection. The ODF set up for this research used Yahoo Groups, third party, groupware technology that enabled free access to SBOMs from a networked computer (other networked devices were not available in 2007). The Yahoo Groups ODF developed for this research was an online collaborative learning (OCL) forum that provided the basis of the case study reported in this thesis. The research was undertaken to explore the following research questions: Does an ODF empower SBOMs as active learners? What factors (internal and external) lead to different levels of participation (inactive, peripheral participants, active) in an ODF? What learning (single- or double-loop, surface or deep) results from different levels of participation in an ODF?
The research was conducted using constructivist ontology, an interpretive epistemology and a qualitative methodology. The case study approach was used to evaluate SBOMs' participation and learning using the OCL forum, using reliable data from SBOMs. Data from four sources—the OCL forum transcript, in-depth interviews, focus groups and field notes—were used to provide insight into participation and learning by SBOMs in the context of owning and operating a small business. Pozzi, Manca, Persico and Sarti‘s (2007) framework for tracking and analysing the learning process in an ODF was used to provide a structured approach to the analysis of participation and learning from the OCL forum transcript data. This was followed by a detailed thematic analysis of all data to determine what factors affected participation and learning by SBOMs in the OCL forum. Findings from this research provided proof of concept that an ODF for SBOMs supported double-loop learning; however, participation could not be assumed. Although the ODF provided a learning approach that met the SBOMs‘ learning preferences and mitigated their reasons for not attending formal training, the majority of invited SBOMs chose not to participate. Internal factors pointed to SBOMs‘ learning commitment, in particular, their occupational identity, whether they linked learning with business success, and their prior experience with ODFs. When SBOMs had committed to learning, they made time to learn in an ODF. External factors showed that the ODF technical and learning design also affected SBOMs‘ decision to participate, as did the quality of learning design; however, it appears external factors are less influential than the internal factor of SBOMs‘ learning commitment. This thesis makes four contributions:
The importance of SBOMs‘ learning commitment in their decision to participate (or not) in a voluntary ODF Proof of concept that an informal ODF can promote deep learning for SBOMs Challenge to the idea purported by the more recent learning theory of heutagogy (Kenyon & Hase, 2001) that all learners in an online networked environment are self-determined Research design, exploratory, multiple data collection methods from the SBOMs—both those who participated in the ODF and those who chose not to take part.
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Schmuck, Ludger, i Veronika Vintish. "SMEs offline: why? : A multiple-case study of Swedish micro SMEs". Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-111569.
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The Internet is becoming a more and more influencing factor in our everyday life. It affects many of our daily tasks and it is a determining factor we built our decisions on. Especially in Sweden, retrieving information about products or services online prior to the purchase is a matter of course and emphasizes therefore its importance. A website offers a costefficient potential for smaller firms with limited resources to be visible for consumers and to compete on the larger market. However, the website adoption has been neglected amongst 41% of Swedish micro Small- and Medium sized Enterprises (SME), which raises the question why this phenomenon exists. Existing literature does not provide a solid explanation of this occurrence and this is where our study steps in. In order to answer our research question and to fill this gap, the study is designed as a qualitative multiple-case study with twelve semi-structured interviews conducted amongst the owner-managers of micro SMEs in different parts of Sweden. The study aims to fill the theoretical gap by identifying and explaining the reasons why micro SMEs in Sweden do not adopt a website. The empirical contribution is the development of managerial recommendations about how micro SMEs can overcome the barriers to adopt a website. This research was guided by a conceptual framework, including strategic, consumer and customer, communication and interaction perspectives, as well as the perspective of the perception of websites. In order to carry out a profound analysis, we decided to apply two steps. The first step of the analysis was to connect the themes itself to theory in order to explore what the collected data represents so that reasons explaining why micro SMEs do not adopt a website could be found. The second step of the analysis included the exploration of the identified reasons in order to understand why these exist. The results from this study are expressed as six reasons why the owner-managers of micro SMEs in Sweden have not adopted a website. These reasons are: a wrong perception of a website, the lack of resources and competences, precaution, being a contractor to an umbrella company, being unaware of a website’s impact on the business and having successful network and offline-communication methods. The findings leave practitioners and researchers with an idea about what reasons are leading owners of micro SMEs to neglect a website and why these reasons exist.
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Blackman, Alan John, i n/a. "Entrepreneurs: Interrelationships Between Their Characteristics, Values, Expectations, Management Practices and SME Performance". Griffith University. School of Marketing and Management, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040615.154732.
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This original research seeks to identify unique predictive relationships between the characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the management practices they choose; and then, the relationships between those practices and business performance. It adds to the current understanding of the impact of entrepreneurs on the performance of their businesses and has also led to the development of two new tools for assessing the performance of SMEs. Growth of the SME sector is important to the public policy agendas of governments, like those in Australia, that are seeking to optimise the employment opportunities associated with an SME sector in which "success" is the norm because SME failure, or underperformance, is associated with many social costs; costs that include reduced earnings for proprietors, potential job loss for staff and financial hardship for suppliers, as well as a reduction in the average per capita spending power of the community in which the failed or under performing business is based. For the SME, business strategy development and implementation is often the role of the entrepreneur owner-manager. The characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in SMEs may thus influence their choice of management practices and thereby the performance of their businesses. As Cooper (1998) argued: "the primary motivations of the entrepreneur bear upon not only the decision to start but also upon the decisions about how to manage, including whether or not to grow the firm aggressively" (p. 247). Johnson (1990) suggested that there is a strong need to focus future research on the motivation mechanisms of entrepreneurs as drivers of the entrepreneurial process. Johnson's view supports the entrepreneurial trait school of thought that development of an understanding of the individual entrepreneur's characteristics, values and expectations might provide worthwhile insight into her or his behaviour and its relationship to SME success and failure. The purposes of this research, therefore, were, first, to determine the importance of the attributed and attained characteristics of the entrepreneur on the formation of his or her values and expectations; second, to determine the influence of those values and expectations on the choice of management practices; third, to determine the degree to which those management practices influence business performance; and last, to develop a scale of measurement for entrepreneur characteristics, values and expectations that can be used to predict business performance. To enable limited comparison with Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) findings and to control for between industry and between state influences, the chosen context for the research was the furniture industry in Queensland. To add to current knowledge in SME management practices and performance, two new measurement tools were developed for this research. The first quantifies the positiveness of the business intentions of the entrepreneur. The second is a scaled index of perceived performance that takes account of the importance given by an entrepreneur to eight common business objectives and the degree to which he or she is satisfied with the performance of the business for each objective. Both tools are important additions to the limited existing armoury of tools available to researchers seeking to understand and predict SME performance. For the first time, the findings of this research indicate negative relationships between parent occupation skill levels and the importance given by entrepreneurs to the values of responsibility, honesty and competence and the negative role of the entrepreneur's achieved highest qualification on the importance given to values of affection, compassion, religion and national security. The findings thereby highlight the important role played by an entrepreneur's attained characteristics on the formation of his or her values. As well, the results show the important role played by values such as power and responsibility, as well as by high internal locus of control, on an entrepreneur's selection of planning, marketing and future management practices. In turn, the impact of those practices on business performance, as measured by the overall satisfaction of the entrepreneur and the newly created Scaled Index of Perceived Performance, is demonstrated. In so doing, the results shed more light on the complex relationships between entrepreneurs, the management practices they choose, and business performance. For the furniture industry in Queensland, the findings confirm Cooper's (1998) view that there is an empirical relationship between business founding processes and the performance of the business. Also supported is Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) broad finding for the furniture industry in New South Wales that "personal values of owner/managers, the strategies they adopt in operating their firms, and the performance outcomes of their businesses are empirically related" (1997, p. 59). Future research is needed to develop a causal model for those relationships in a variety of SME and other contexts.
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Blackman, Alan John. "Entrepreneurs: Interrelationships Between Their Characteristics, Values, Expectations, Management Practices and SME Performance". Thesis, Griffith University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366050.
Pełny tekst źródłaStreszczenie:
This original research seeks to identify unique predictive relationships between the characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the management practices they choose; and then, the relationships between those practices and business performance. It adds to the current understanding of the impact of entrepreneurs on the performance of their businesses and has also led to the development of two new tools for assessing the performance of SMEs. Growth of the SME sector is important to the public policy agendas of governments, like those in Australia, that are seeking to optimise the employment opportunities associated with an SME sector in which "success" is the norm because SME failure, or underperformance, is associated with many social costs; costs that include reduced earnings for proprietors, potential job loss for staff and financial hardship for suppliers, as well as a reduction in the average per capita spending power of the community in which the failed or under performing business is based. For the SME, business strategy development and implementation is often the role of the entrepreneur owner-manager. The characteristics, values and expectations of entrepreneurs in SMEs may thus influence their choice of management practices and thereby the performance of their businesses. As Cooper (1998) argued: "the primary motivations of the entrepreneur bear upon not only the decision to start but also upon the decisions about how to manage, including whether or not to grow the firm aggressively" (p. 247). Johnson (1990) suggested that there is a strong need to focus future research on the motivation mechanisms of entrepreneurs as drivers of the entrepreneurial process. Johnson's view supports the entrepreneurial trait school of thought that development of an understanding of the individual entrepreneur's characteristics, values and expectations might provide worthwhile insight into her or his behaviour and its relationship to SME success and failure. The purposes of this research, therefore, were, first, to determine the importance of the attributed and attained characteristics of the entrepreneur on the formation of his or her values and expectations; second, to determine the influence of those values and expectations on the choice of management practices; third, to determine the degree to which those management practices influence business performance; and last, to develop a scale of measurement for entrepreneur characteristics, values and expectations that can be used to predict business performance. To enable limited comparison with Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) findings and to control for between industry and between state influences, the chosen context for the research was the furniture industry in Queensland. To add to current knowledge in SME management practices and performance, two new measurement tools were developed for this research. The first quantifies the positiveness of the business intentions of the entrepreneur. The second is a scaled index of perceived performance that takes account of the importance given by an entrepreneur to eight common business objectives and the degree to which he or she is satisfied with the performance of the business for each objective. Both tools are important additions to the limited existing armoury of tools available to researchers seeking to understand and predict SME performance. For the first time, the findings of this research indicate negative relationships between parent occupation skill levels and the importance given by entrepreneurs to the values of responsibility, honesty and competence and the negative role of the entrepreneur's achieved highest qualification on the importance given to values of affection, compassion, religion and national security. The findings thereby highlight the important role played by an entrepreneur's attained characteristics on the formation of his or her values. As well, the results show the important role played by values such as power and responsibility, as well as by high internal locus of control, on an entrepreneur's selection of planning, marketing and future management practices. In turn, the impact of those practices on business performance, as measured by the overall satisfaction of the entrepreneur and the newly created Scaled Index of Perceived Performance, is demonstrated. In so doing, the results shed more light on the complex relationships between entrepreneurs, the management practices they choose, and business performance. For the furniture industry in Queensland, the findings confirm Cooper's (1998) view that there is an empirical relationship between business founding processes and the performance of the business. Also supported is Kotey's and Meredith's (1997) broad finding for the furniture industry in New South Wales that "personal values of owner/managers, the strategies they adopt in operating their firms, and the performance outcomes of their businesses are empirically related" (1997, p. 59). Future research is needed to develop a causal model for those relationships in a variety of SME and other contexts.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Marketing and Management
Full Text
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Matlay, Harry. "The paradox of training in the small business sector : owner/managers' attitudes to, and actual provision of, training in the West Midlands region, 1993-1996". Thesis, University of Warwick, 1996. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/106915/.
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This thesis examines the training and human resource development strategies of small business owner/managers. Its premise is that although most small business owner/managers claim to have a positive attitude to training, its actual provision fails significantly to keep pace with their perceived skill needs. The existence and magnitude of the ‘training paradox’ was explored in a telephone survey focused upon 2000 randomly chosen respondents from the West Midland region of Great Britain. The underlying causes of this paradox were identified and analysed in a longitudinal survey which involved in-depth, face-to-face interviews, carried out with a sub-sample of 246 owner/managers Furthermore, a wide range of complementary data obtained from 74 ‘matched’ case studies was used to test the cumulative results obtained from both the telephone interviews and the longitudinal survey. A number of important training-related findings emerged from this research study. Firstly, small business owner/managers’ attitudes to training remained remarkably stable throughout the length of the research The most important factor to affect owner/managers' attitudes to training was the quality of their ‘incubator’ experiences in this field Attitudes to training also determined, to a large extent, the recruitment preferences of these respondents. Secondly, according to these owner/managers, the actual provision of training in their firms was determined by a combination of ‘directly’ and ‘indirectly relevant’ factors. In the ‘directly relevant’ category, owner/managers included the market positioning of a firm, prevailing economic conditions and the availability of relevant training The ‘indirectly relevant’ category involved factors of secondary importance, such as the cost of training, time constraints, lack of in-house trainers and difficulties relating to trainee cover, motivation and interest. It became obvious, from the results of this research study, that the recent policy efforts aimed at the small business sector have failed to make a significant impact upon these owner/managers’ training and human resource development strategies. This thesis concludes by recommending that the overall availability, both in terms of quantity and quality, of vocational education and training should be improved to at least the level provided by Britain’s main competitors. Furthermore, the training industry, itself dominated by the self-employed, micro- and very small firms, should be targeted for selective financial assistance in order to subsidise a range of economically priced and customised training, narrowly focused upon the diverse needs of small businesses.
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Råsbrant, Jonas. "Essays on Share Repurchases and Equity Ownership". Doctoral thesis, KTH, Entreprenörskap och Innovation, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-122236.
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This thesis comprises five empirical essays using Swedish data. Three of the essays examine open market share repurchases, one essay investigates changes in investors’ shareholdings surrounding equity rights offerings (ROs), and the last essay investigates owner-managers’ equity portfolio choices. The first essay examines stock performance around initiation announcements of open market share repurchase programs, the price impact of repurchase trading and the long-run stock performance following the initiation announcements. The study uses a unique data set of initiation announcements and actual share repurchases conducted by firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE). The results show that initiation announcements of open market repurchase programs exhibit a 2 day abnormal return (AR) of 2% on average. The price impact on the actual repurchase days is positively correlated with the daily repurchase volume, and is both statistically and economically significant during the first 3 repurchase days in a repurchase program. The long-run abnormal stock performance is positively associated with the fraction of shares bought in the program and is on average 7% for the first year following the initiation announcement. The results indicate that repurchase trading provides price support and that the market participants detect and perceive the initiation announcement and the first repurchase days in a repurchase program as a signal of undervaluation. The second essay examines differences in the market performance of Swedish firms that initiate repurchase programs infrequently (1-2 programs), occasionally (3-4 programs) and frequently (5 or more programs) over the period 2000-2009. It is found that infrequent repurchase programs are greeted with a stronger positive reaction than occasional and frequent programs. However, over the long-term, infrequent repurchase programs show no AR while occasional and frequent repurchase programs show significant positive ARs. A positive relationship between AR and repurchase size is documented for all types of repurchase programs. The third essay examines the market liquidity impact of open market share repurchases in an electronic order-driven market. The study uses a detailed data set of daily repurchase transactions on the SSE together with intraday data on bid-ask spreads and order depths which enables an investigation of the liquidity effects on the actual repurchase days. It is found that repurchase trades inside the order-driven trading system contribute to market liquidity through narrower bid-ask spreads and deeper market depths. After controlling for trading volume, price and volatility, a significant decrease of the bid-ask spread on repurchase days relative to surrounding non-repurchase days is still found. However, repurchases executed as block trades outside the order-driven trading system have a detrimental effect on the bid-ask spread, consistent with a negative response to the presence of informed managerial trading. The fourth essay examines changes in equity ownership surrounding ROs by firms listed on the SSE. The results show that domestic individual investors on average reduce their shareholdings following rights issues, whereas domestic institutional investors and foreign investors increase their holdings. However, when ownership changes are adjusted with changes in ownership in matched non-issuing firms, it is documented that domestic institutions significantly increase their shareholdings in RO firms, whereas foreign investors decrease their holdings in these firms. A positive (negative) association between the 6 month benchmark adjusted return following the offering and the change in shareholdings by foreign investors (domestic institutional investors) is also documented. Finally, the fifth and last essay investigates how Swedish owner-managers (CEO or Chairman) invest in the Swedish stock market conditional on a major investment in their own firm. No evidence is found that owner-managers seek diversification benefits when they invest in other Swedish stocks. In general, they choose other stocks that show higher correlation among themselves than the average Swedish stocks. It is also found that owner-managers within high-tech industries invest significantly more of their total Swedish stock investments in IT stocks than owner-managers within other industries.QC 20130515
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Rocklage, Metje. "An examination of owner managers' perceptions of sustainability as a contribution to long-term success in the German graphic design industry : a critical analysis of the influence of the use of sustainability". Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2016. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/4257/.
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This thesis explores the research gap on the influence of sustainability as a contribution to long-term success in businesses of German graphic design industry (GDI). It focuses on owner managers’ within the Creative Industries by understanding the use of sustainability and expresses what sustainability means for GDI owner managers’. Sustainability is and will be a relevant and unperfected accessed area of research, precisely because the rearrangement of resource saving and sustainable economic management is believed to be one of the major challenges of the 21st-century. Also the group of well the people with a Lifestyle Of Health And Sustainability continues to increase. Sustainability is a mega trend! It is well documented that sustainability management is especially relevant for big firms and is able to assure companies success for the long-term. This research seeks to explore this for small and medium sized companies. Which options do the mainly small organised German graphic design industry (GDI) have? How does that fit to the creative industry (CI) as a major economic force? The German GDI is rumoured to be very innovative – multiplied effective ideas are a basis for successful sustainability management. GDIs should be at the forefront of sustainability management because they have a wide reach and connections to other industries and are with its creativity services in graphic and communication design important for the growth of the whole German economy. The primary question is: Is the use of sustainability in German GDI a contribution to long-term success? This leads to the title of the thesis “An examination of owner managers’ perception of sustainability as a contribution to long-term success in the German graphic design industry.” The key research question is: Is the use of sustainability in German GDI a contribution to long-term success? The research methodology is based on a number of expert interviews conducted Metje Rocklage II with German graphic design industry owner managers’ implementing sustainability in their daily business. Preparing these semi-structured guideline interviews two pre talks were adapted. Together with reflective presentation of the author in front of an audience of graphic design and sustainability experts, the author developed a constructivist prejudice as a foundation for an Applied Thematic Analysis. The core results of this research are: Sustainability for graphic design industry owner managers’ means a strong inner motivated world improvement with another way of thinking and acting of how to ecologically (with priority), social and (not for all) economically produces good and sustainable results, which means durable and valuable products. The use of sustainability within German graphic design owner managers’ is based on internal motivation and personal core values. Ecologic activities occur more often than economic and social activities. Implementing sustainability to future business requires a creative, alternative, complex, and long-term thought process with consideration to consequences. Sustainability is often seen as a contribution to long-term success (with happiness and satisfaction). Sustainability positive influences the inner motivation, the networking and cooperation, is an added value, provides a unique selling proposition, and is seen as an image-forming factor. The surprising outcome of this research is the high personal inner motivation of the topic sustainability within German graphic design industry. The owner managers’ personal core values are of primary importance; with it the use of sustainability is seen as a contribution to long-term success with happiness and satisfaction. For long-term success, it seems to be optimal for the entrepreneur to act in a sustainable manner on the basis of inner motivation and intrinsic interest. That leads to the assumption, that the integration of sustainability in businesses of German graphic design owner managers’ is established on the basis of inner motivation and personal core values. German graphic designers that implement sustainability are headed in the right direction to be fit for the future, by thinking creative, complex and for the longterm. Further additional research is needed about inner motivation and sustainability as a contribution to small and medium-sized success.
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Owusu, Kwame. "A study of factors leading to growth in small firms : an examination of factors that impact on growth of small manufacturing in least developed countries : the case of Ghana". Doctoral thesis, University of Bradford, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4407.
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The focus of this study is to examine the factors that lead to growth in
small firms in a Least Developed Country (LDC). The research is
based on the manufacturing sector in Ghana. The main objectives of
the research are to identify the key variables that lead to small firms'
growth and to ascertain the critical barriers that impede growth.
A research model which is developed out of an initial exploratory
research and existing literature focuses on how the characteristics of
the owner/manager, the characteristics of the firm and the business
strategy variables interact to affect growth in employment. In addition
factors that are perceived to have constrained the growth of the small
firms during the study period are ascertained and discussed.
To properly test the hypotheses developed a face to face interview
survey involving 122 owner/managers of small manufacturing firms is
conducted. This resulted in a range of variables that allowed for the
construction of a comprehensive multivariate model of small firm
growth.
A resulting regression model provides about 68 percent of the
explanation for the growth of the small firms sampled. It also indicates
that the owner/manager characteristics variables offer the most
powerful explanation to small firm growth. We find that the
owner/manager's growth aspiration is the most influential factor in
achieving growth. The other owner/manager characteristics variables
that have positive influence on growth are level of education, prior
industry experience and entrepreneurial family background.
Owner/managers with local experience and/or with other business
interests are less likely to achieve faster growth. Foreign
owned/managed firms grow faster.
Younger and smaller firms appear to grow faster. While firms with
multiple ownerships tend to grow at a slower rate than firms owned and
managed by one person.
Business planning, marketing and export have positive and significant
impacts on growth. Other business strategies such as innovations and
staff training also have direct relationships with growth but not
significant.
Some of the main constraining factors to growth are cost of borrowing,
lack of access to credit, high cost of inputs, lack of trust within the
business community, high bureaucracy, late payments and lack of
efficient support system. While the external environment plays
important role in small firm growth and development, the behaviours,
response and strategies pursued by individual owner/manager are
significant factors that determine the rate at which a firm will grow.Ghana Leasing Company Limited
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Eib, Constanze. "Processes of Organizational Justice : Insights into the perception and enactment of justice". Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Psykologiska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-114113.
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Well-being at work is of major public interest, and justice at the workplace can be a key factor contributing to employees and managers feeling well. Research has found direct relationships between organizational justice perceptions and work and health outcomes. With research on the justice–health link still emerging, this thesis examines the moderating and mediating processes for the effects of justice perceptions on work outcomes and especially health outcomes. As little is known about those who enact justice, the antecedents and consequences of justice enactment are also studied. In Study I, the relationships between organizational justice and work and health outcomes were in focus, as the moderating role of job characteristics was investigated utilizing the demand–control(–support) model. Organizational justice and job characteristics were associated with work and health outcomes within and across time. The multiplicative effects showed that the organizational justice effects were stronger when perceived job demands were high, job control was low or social support was low. Study II examined the processes through which justice perceptions translate into health outcomes. Building on the allostatic load model, mental preoccupation with work was found to be a relevant mediator of the justice–health relationship, with locus of control moderating the mediated relationships. Study III focused on the actor perspective. Investigating predictions based on the deontic model of justice and ego-depletion theory, moral regard and justice self-efficacy predicted justice enactment positively, and justice enactment had positive effects on feeling professionally recognized but also negative health consequences for the actors themselves. This thesis contributes to advancing the emergent justice–health research stream by providing insights into the processes underlying these aspects, and by incorporating this stream into the actor perspective.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Submitted.
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Shailer, G. E. P. (Gregory Edward Philip). "Contextualising the performance of owner-managed firms : a conceptual framework based on owner-managers' objectives / Gregory E.P. Shailer". 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/18800.
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Bibliography: leaves 354-371.xii, 371 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Graduate School of Management, 1997?
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Shailer, G. E. P. (Gregory Edward Philip). "Contextualising the performance of owner-managed firms : a conceptual framework based on owner-managers' objectives / Gregory E.P. Shailer". Thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/18800.
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Lin, Yi-Yu, i 林義又. "The Influence of Trust and Power Relationships on the Performance Appraisal of Managers by Family Business Owner". Thesis, 2007. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10064613429906237784.
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碩士中原大學
企業管理研究所
95
The familism and the Confucianism thoughts have deeply influence the Chinese society for a long time, thus Chinese take each other into account with the power distance and guan-xi in dealing with interpersonal relationships. Most of Taiwan's businesses are family business, therefore, the administration of Chinese family business always facing the problems of authoritarianism and guan-xism. The literature review shows the reasons and framework that Chinese family business owner demonstrates different assessing behavior when dealing with different kinds of power distance, different levels of trust relationship, as well as professional managers of different ranks. Basing on this framework, the researcher designs eight kinds of simulated situation in the questionnaire by using projective technique in this experimental design. This research discusses the appraisal dimensions and responses of the participants who completed the questionnaire from family business owner’s perspective considering 8 different kinds of professional manager. The summary of research findings are as follow: 1. When family business owner assesses professional managers with different ranks, he prefers guan-xi (trust relationship) when assessing higher ranks. However, he prefers power relationship (power of expertise) when assessing lower ranks. 2. When family business owner assesses professional managers with different kinds of trust and power relationships, managers with “closer guan-xi and higher power” get highest appraisal score. And managers with “alienated guan-xi and higher power” and “closer guan-xi and lower power” get lower appraisal scores respectively. Finally, managers with “alienated guan-xi and lower power” get lowest appraisal score. 3. When family business owner assesses professional managers with different kinds of trust relationship, power relationship and different ranks, (1) he scores higher to higher rank than lower rank when managers with “closer guan-xi and higher power;”(2) he scores higher to lower rank than higher rank when managers with “alienated guan-xi and higher power; ”(3) he scores no significant difference between higher rank and lower rank when managers with “closer guan-xi and lower power;”(4) he scores higher to lower rank than higher rank when managers with “alienated guan-xi and lower power.” 4. Female respondents answer that family business owner will be affected when assessing lower rank with “alienated guan-xi and higher power” than those male respondents. 5. Respondents with older age, management position and higher educative background are more likely to have empathy to family business owner when he takes guan-xi into serious account. 6. Respondents in companies which are larger in size and longer in history tend to respond more likely to first research finding mentioned above. The contribution of this research is to verify empirically that family business owner does consider trust relationship, power relationship and ranks when assessing professional managers. The suggestions in practice are: (1) family business owner should recognize his own management style and does some proper adjustment; (2) professional managers should realize that their boss will take these factors in appraisal and find a better way to improve themselves.
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Lan, Tzu-tang, i 藍紫堂. "The Owner-managers of Information Technology(IT)Entrepreneurial Businesses—An Explorative Case Study on Electronic Components Manufacturing Companies". Thesis, 2005. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/50741278459703361540.
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博士國立中山大學
企業管理學系研究所
93
To inquire into entrepreneurship, a newly-emerging and interesting subject, our research has selected Taiwan’s information technology electronics components industry as research target. By gathering vast- and primary- data, and using several representative Taiwanese component manufacturers as case studies, we found the ‘technical-amateur’ phenomenon. This paper will clearly explain the contents, contextual factors, and advantages of technical-amateur entrepreneurship. These type of entrepreneurs are so-called ‘technical-amateurs’ because they lacked previous work experiences in the information technology industry, i.e. outsiders; they also lacked technical ability of the typical blue-collared workers and the engineers, they were previously high-level managers in the manufacturing industry. Thus technical-amateurs tend to have vast- and extended- relationship networks that can quickly transfer capitals, to form capital team and gain the assistance of venture capital to attract the technical team; they also have sharp intuition that can strategize to move toward the mainstream to maximize market benefits; they also have managerial ability that can successfully assimilate the technology team and improve production efficiency while reducing production cost. These concepts are similar to the arguments of ‘fitness landscape’, ‘co-evolution’, and ‘the establishment of shared schema”. There are several important contextual factors that led to the emergence of technical-amateurs. 1) Product technology already exists, but the process technology remains to be explored; 2) Clustering of the local information technology industry, especially the existence of world-class EMS manufacturers; 3) Rapid growths of venture-capitals; 4) Mobility of technology and talents; and 5) Profitability minimization of information products. Comparing to technical entrepreneurs, technical-amateur entrepreneurs have the following advantages: 1.By occupying the advanced-guard position in the information industry, can quickly discover entrepreneurial opportunities. Outsourcing under changes in the global commodity chain and the trend toward lighter- and smaller- information products, give rise to more entrepreneurial opportunities in the component industry. Since technical-amateurs maintain close relationships with venture-capital thus can organize capital team, therefore occupying the advanced-guard position where they can quickly discover emerging opportunities. 2.Powerful Capital Reinforcements. To achieve economies of scale, newly-founded components businesses must quickly improve its productivity. But before this could happen, manufacturer must experience a learning period where budgetary deficits are unavoidable. However due to the reinforcements of the capital team, technical-amateur entrepreneurs can lead through this difficult period and into a most profitable period of significant growths.