Small business performance: business, strategy and owner‐manager characteristics

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance and particularly, growth. Design/methodology/approach -This paper utilises an original data set of 360 SMEs employing 5-249 people to run logit regression models of employment growth, turnover growth and profitability. The models include characteristics of the businesses, the owner-managers and their strategies. Findings -The results suggest that size and age of enterprise dominate performance and are more important than strategy and the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owner. Having a business plan was also found to be important.Research limitations/implications -The results contribute to the development of theoretical and knowledge bases, as well as offering results that will be of interest to research and policy communities. The results are limited to a single survey, using cross-sectional data. Practical implications -The findings have a bearing on business growth strategy for policy makers. The results suggest that policy measures that promote the take-up of business plans and are targeted at younger, larger-sized businesses may have the greatest impact in terms of helping to facilitate business growth. Originality/value -A novel feature of the models is the incorporation of entrepreneurial traits and whether there were any collaborative joint venture arrangements.

Environmental Proactivity and Firms’ Performance: Mediation Effect of Competitive Advantages in Spanish Wineries

“…The significant effect of size on economic-financial performance has been widely discussed in literature [49,100,101]. However, in our case, there is no significant impact on the manager's perception of performance.…”

“…The age of the firm, meanwhile, has a significant impact on the manager's perception of performance, and this can provide proof of the impact of the company's life cycle (and, therefore, the experience effect) on their ability to improve organizational performance as Blackburn et al [101] have proposed. However, the fact that a firm's age has no significant effect on business performance may suggest an impact much more in the long term.…”

“…However, in our case, there is no significant impact on the manager's perception of performance. Blackburn et al [101] conclude that, in companies with fewer than 250 workers, size dominates performance and is more important than other variables such as strategy or the owner's business acumen. Other authors, such as López-Gamero and Molina-Azorín [49], relate size to a greater environmental proactivity due to the greater capacity that larger firms have for implementing environmental strategies or absorbing the risk resulting from the greater visibility of these firms.…”

Entrepreneurship and the determinants of firm survival within regions: human capital, growth motivation and locational conditions

“…Outside of this range, the expectation is that the survival of the enterprise will be compromised either through a lack of relevant experience or a desire to retire (Andersson Joona 2010;Haapanen and Tervo 2009). It is acknowledged that the survival of the enterprise is not solely reliant on the human capital of the entrepreneur, but that they will be able to draw upon the human capital of their employees, especially as these enterprises have moved through the start-up phase. However, scholars such as Blackburn, Hart and Wainwright (2013) and Hansen and Hamilton (2011) note how the owner-managers of SMEs play an important role in determining the strategies pursued, are a key resource for small firms, and ultimately have an important influence on the performance achieved by the firm. These direct and indirect influences on survival are shown by Figure 2, with influences on both the performance of the firm and the performance threshold.…”

Local Disorder and the Success of Firms in Residential Neighbourhoods

“…Most studies on success determinants distinguish between firm-internal and external factors (Storey, 1994;Schutjens and Wever, 2000;Davidsson et al, 2010;Risselada and Schutjens, 2017). Numerous academic studies have shown that it is the characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs that are the primary 'firminternal' drivers of firm success and firm growth, either as direct influences through entrepreneurial competences (Tamásy, 2006), management or strategic experience, or financial capital (Santarelli and Vivarelli, 2007), or indirect via personality factors that lead to ambitions for firm growth, which in turn is a prerequisite for firm success (Davidsson, 1991;De Tienne et al, 2008; for recent overviews, see Gilbert et al, 2006;Davidsson et al, 2010;Blackburn et al, 2013;Van Witteloostuijn et al, 2015).…”