Entrepreneurship and Small Business

Paul Burns
Chapter 2 Heroes and super-heroes
Back to Contents Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Influences on owner-managers and entrepreneurs

Personal characteristics and traits Culture of
society

Antecedent
influences

Situational factors
Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Managerial typologies
Type of manager Owner-manager Type of business
Lifestyle firm, often trade or craft based. Will not grow
Growth firm. Pursuit of growth and personal wealth important Manages business for others. Organisation similar to large firm
Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Entrepreneur

Manager

Methodological problems in measuring personality characteristics

Not stable over time
Require subjective judgements

Measures tend to ignore cultural and environmental influences

The role of education, learning, training is often overlooked Issues such as age, sex, race, social class can be overlooked
Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Characteristics of ownermanagers
The need for independence
The need for achievement Internal locus of control Measured risk takers

Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Characteristics of entrepreneurial owners

Opportunistic
Innovative Self-confident (or delusional?) Self-motivated and restless Proactive and decisive

Vision and flair good at creating an image

Willing to take even greater risks
Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Antecedent influences on startups

Education
Employment and unemployment Family Immigrant

Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Factors that cannot be proved to influence start-ups

Marital status
Children Previous wage Experience Age Gender

Ethnicity
Social class School type Personality Manager in previous job

Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Antecedent influences on entrepreneurs

Well educated
Start business because of positive motivations Leave managerial job to start business

Middle aged (or very young?)

Willing to share ownership of business
Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Factors that cannot be proved to influence growth

Gender
Prior firm size experience Prior sector experience Training

Ethnicity
Social marginality Family history Prior selfemployment

Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001

Hofstedes dimensions of culture

HIGH USA, Australia, Canada, France South America, Malaysia, France Greece, France Portugal, Uruguay USA, Austria, UK, Japan, Germany LOW

INDIVIDUALISM
POWER DISTANCE UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE MASCULINITY

South America, Pakistan USA, Germany, Scandinavia, UK Hong Kong, UK, USA, Singapore North Europe

Paul Burns, Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Palgrave, 2001