We acknowledge the support from the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA), particularly from Ernst Langmantel and the netidee.at funding program, which enabled us to collect the data and carry out the research described in this article. We are also grateful for the chance to cooperate with the editors of this special issue, Lee Fleming and Olav Sorenson. They have contributed to our work by providing us with valuable feedback and support. Finally, we received many useful comments from the anonymous reviewers for CMR that helped us move this article forward.

Consumer borrowing is a highly topical and multifaceted phenomenon as well as a popular subject for study. We focus on consumer credit use and review the existing literature. To categorize what is known we identify four main psychological perspectives on the phenomenon: credit use as (1) a reflection of the situation, (2) a reflection of the person, (3) a cognitive process, and (4) a social process. On top of these perspectives we view credit use as a process that entails three distinct phases: (1) processes before credit acquisition, (2) processes at credit acquisition, and (3) processes after credit acquisition. We review the international literature along a two-tier structure that aligns the psychological perspectives with a process view of credit. This structure allows us to identify systematic concentrations as well as gaps in the existing research. We consolidate what is known within each perspective and identify what seems to be most urgently missing. Some of the most important gaps relate to research studying credit acquisition from the perspective of credit use as a reflection of the person or as a social process. In particular, research on credit use as a reflection of the person appears to focus exclusively on the first stage of the credit process. We conclude with a discussion that reaches across perspectives and identifies overarching gaps, trends, and open questions. We highlight a series of implicit linkages between perspectives and the geographical regions in which studies related to the perspectives were conducted. Beyond diagnosing a geographical imbalance of research, we argue for future research that systematically addresses interrelations between perspectives. We conclude with a set of global implications and research recommendations.

Purpose -Small business owners play an important role in the tax system. This paper seeks to establish a framework to highlight the particular tax situation of small business owners and the resulting implications, from a psychological perspective. Design/methodology/approach -A framework identifying the key characteristics of small business owners' actual and perceived tax situation is established. Literature investigating these characteristics is reviewed in line with the proposed framework. Findings -Three key aspects seem to distinguish small business owners' perceptions of their tax situation: small business owners are likely to perceive more opportunities not to comply than employed taxpayers; they are more likely to experience a lack of meaningful taxation knowledge; and they are more likely to face decision frames that render taxes as painful losses.Research limitations/implications -The suggested link between the subjective experience of the tax situation and compliance calls for a focus on strategies that aim to influence taxpayers' perceptions of their own evasion opportunities, their level of legislative and procedural knowledge, and their sense of ownership of tax money. Such a strategy is suggested to be particularly likely to be effective in the phase of nascent entrepreneurship and in a climate of mutual trust between taxpayers and tax authorities. Originality/value -This paper comprehensively identifies and reviews the perceptual correlates of factors unique to small business owners' tax behaviour.