An emotional business: a guide to understanding the motivations of small business decision takers

Abstract

Argues that the way in which the UK Government, through its various departments and quangos, approaches designed to approve the effectiveness of the small business sector, is based on a flawed understanding of how small businesses actually operate. Argues that this naïve, over‐simplistic understanding of the motivation of those in the small business sector means that many government interventions that are made, are blunt instruments destined to fail, given the limited understanding shown of the complexity of the small business market. Presents evidence from two recent studies amongst small firms; a series of large‐scale qualitative studies undertaken for a blue chip company and a mixed study on the Business Link network. The emphasis is based on – using qualitative research – getting to grips with the emotion, ambiguity and complexity that characterises this market.

Integrated marketing for SMEs in the global marketplace

“…The skills of setting up a business and technical know-how in developing a product or service do not equate with the skills for the running and growing of a business. 3 Small businesses are best seen as having flat structures without the formalised hierarchical or matrix chains of command found in larger firms. So integration of business functions resides in the minds of their entrepreneurial owners.…”

Towards a Model of Technology Adoption: A Conceptual Model Proposition

“…Support to adopt ICT is often superficial, aimed at end users and of limited use to companies whose core business is ICT. Policy makers need to address the benefits for SMEs, rather than the need to hit government targets (Culkin and Smith, 2000) and indeed be concerned with the SMEs need and not with personal career development (Mercer, 1996). It has been suggested that many intervention projects address the needs of the policy makers' career rather than the intervention itself (Culkin and Smith, 2000); although that is an understandable concern given the often transient nature of job roles in this area.…”

Towards a Knowledge Sharing Model for Small Businesses

“…Small businesses adopt informal organisation structure, and decision-making is limited to one person 55 The decision-maker's understanding of the importance and value of knowledge will greatly enhance knowledge sharing activities in a small businesses.…”

“…The owner-manager of an organisation tends to take on a central position 54 , and therefore decision-making is limited to only one person 55 . This limitation signifies that the owner-manager is responsible for recognising the benefits of knowledge management, and control tends to be based on the owner's personal supervision 56 .…”