‘Evolution of Species’ in Business: From Mice to Elephants. The Question of Small Enterprise Development
Abstract
The aim of the present research was finding out why an overwhelming majority of small enterprises are incapable of growth. The paper provides a completely new view and explanation of the small and medium-sized enterprise development problem and presents the challenge-solving algorithm integrated into the web service for timely assessments facilitating a successful transition of enterprises into a group of big enterprises. The findings confirm that laws of the enterprise development are more universal than people commonly believe and not so dependent on external factors. The suggested concept of the informational challenge is a key development factor at small fast-growing enterprises managed by talented entrepreneurs. The concept helps to understand difficulties and cope with them in time of a business transition to the category of medium-sized enterprises. Long-term observations of 68 enterprises (longitudinal study) in Russia made it possible to identify preconditions for gazelle enterprises to appear and factors that prevent them from the sustained growth with an emphasized importance of some internal factors in these processes like entrepreneurs’ personality traits in particular.
References
[2] Aghion, P., and Howitt, P. 1992. A model of growth through creative destruction. Econometrica 602: 323-351.
[3] Begley, T.M., and Boyd, D.P. 1985. The relationship of the Jenkins activity survey to type a behaviour among business executives. Journal of Vocational Behaviour 27: 316-328.
[4] Begley, T.M., and Boyd, D.P. 1986. Executive and corporate correlates of financial performance in smaller business firms. Journal of Small Business Management 24: 8-15.
[5] Boyd, D.P. 1984. Type a behaviour, financial performance and organizational growth in small business firms. Journal of Occupational Psychology 57: 137-140.
[6] Birch, D.L. 1987. Job Creation America: How Our Smallest Companies Put the Most People to Work. Free Press.
[7] Birch, D., and Medoff, J. 1994. Gazelles. In: Solomon, L., and A. Levenson (Eds.), Labor Markets, Employment Policy and Job Creation. Economics and Education: 159-167.
[8] Burns, P. 2016. Entrepreneurship and Small Business: Start-up, Growth and Maturity. Palgrave Macmillan.
[9] Caird, S. 1991. The enterprising tendency of occupational groups. International Small Business Journal 9: 75-81.
[10] Cardon, M.S., and Kirk, C.P. 2015. Entrepreneurial passion as a mediator of the self-efficacy to persistence relationship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 39(5):1027-1050.
[11] Chen, P.C., Greene, P.G., and Crick, A. 1998. Does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers? Journal of Business Venturing 13: 295-316.
[12] Cromie, S., and O'Donoghue, J. 1992. Assessing entrepreneurial inclinations. International Small Business Journal 10: 66-73.
[13] Davila, T. 2005. An Exploratory study on the emergence of management systems: formalizing human Resources in small growing firms. Accounting, Organizations and Society 30(3): 222-248.
[14] Drucker, P.F. 1986. Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. Harper & Row.
[15] European Commission. 2011. Annual Report on EU Small and Medium sized Enterprises 2010/2011. Are UE SMEs Recovering from the Crisis?
[16] European Commission. 2013. Annual Report on European SMEs 2012/2013. A Recovery on the Horizon?
[17] European Commission. 2014. Annual Report on European SMEs 2013/2014 - A Partial and Fragile Recovery.
[18] European Commission. 2015. Annual Report on European SMEs 2014/2015. SMEs Start Hiring Again.
[19] Eurostat. 2011. Key Figures on the European Business with a Special Feature on SMEs.
[20] Franklin, B. 2016. The true impact of venture capital. Venture Capital Journal, (March 3), https://goo.gl/qTq32D (accessed July 3, 2017).
[21] Gardner, H. 2011. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basic Books.
[22] Greiner, L.E. 1972. Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow. Harvard Business Review: 37-46.
[23] Kirton, M. 1976. Adaptors and innovators: A description and measure. Journal of Applied Psychology 61: 622-629.
[24] Kirzner, I. 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship. University of Chicago Press.
[25] Kirzner, I.M.1979. Perception, Opportunity and Profit. The University of Chicago Press.
[26] Kirzner, I.M. 1985. Discovery and the Capitalist Process. The University of Chicago Press.
[27] Knight, F.H. 1921. Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit. Houghton Mifflin.
[28] Koh, H.C. 1996. Testing hypotheses of entrepreneurial characteristics. Journal of Managerial Psychology 11: 12-25.
[29] Liles, P. 1974. New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur. Irwin.
[30] Long, W. 1983. The meaning of entrepreneurship. American Journal of Small Business 8: 7-56.
[31] Michelacci, C. 2003. Low returns in R&D due to lack of entrepreneurial skills. Economic Journal 113(484): 207-225.
[32] Miller, G.A. 1956. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits in our capacity for processing information. The Psychological Review 63: 81-97.
[33] OECD. 2010. High-Growth Enterprises: What Governments Can Do to Make a Difference. OECD.
[34] Rosstat. 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015a. The Russian Statistical Yearbook.
[35] Rosstat. 2015b. Small and Medium-sized Business in Russia 2015.Statistical Compilation.
[36] SBA. 2015. Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories. US Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
[37] SBA. 2016. SBIC Program Overview.US Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
[38] Sexton, D.L., and Bowman, N.B. 1985. The entrepreneur: A capable executive and more. Journal of Business Venturing 1: 129-140.
[39] Shapero, A. 1975. The displaced, uncomforTable entrepreneur. Psychology Today 7(11): 83-89.
[40] Shapero, A. 1984. The Entrepreneurial Event. In: Kent, Calvin, A. (Ed.). The Environment for Entrepreneurship. DC Health: 21-40.
[41] Shapero, A. 1985. Why entrepreneurship? A worldwide perspective. Journal of Small Business Management 23(4): 1-5.
[42] Schere, J. 1982. Tolerance of ambiguity as a discriminating variable between entrepreneurs and managers. Proceedings of the Academy of Management 42: 404-408.
[43] Schumpeter, J. 1911. Theorie der Wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Verlag von Duncker & Humblot.
[44] Solomon, G.T., and Winslow, E.1988. Towards a descriptive profile of the entrepreneur. Journal of Creative Behaviour 22: 162-171.
[45] Storey, D.J. 1998. Six Steps to Heaven: Evaluating the Impact of Public Policies to Support Small Businesses in Developed Economies. CSME Working Paper No. 59. Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.
[46] Verkhovskaya, O.R., Dorokhina, M.V., and Sergeeva, A.V. 2014. Global Business Monitoring. National report. Russia 2013. St. Petersburg.
[47] [Whiting, B.G. 1988. Creativity and entrepreneurship: How do they relate?' Journal of Creative Behaviour 22: 178-183.
[48] Yudanov, A. Yu. 2010. Entrepreneurs of entrepreneurship: firms-gazelles in Russia. Journal of the New Economic Association 5: 91-108.
The Copyright Transfer Form to ASERS Publishing (The Publisher)
This form refers to the manuscript, which an author(s) was accepted for publication and was signed by all the authors.
The undersigned Author(s) of the above-mentioned Paper here transfer any and all copyright-rights in and to The Paper to The Publisher. The Author(s) warrants that The Paper is based on their original work and that the undersigned has the power and authority to make and execute this assignment. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission to quote material that has been previously published in any form. The Publisher recognizes the retained rights noted below and grants to the above authors and employers for whom the work performed royalty-free permission to reuse their materials below. Authors may reuse all or portions of the above Paper in other works, excepting the publication of the paper in the same form. Authors may reproduce or authorize others to reproduce the above Paper for the Author's personal use or for internal company use, provided that the source and The Publisher copyright notice are mentioned, that the copies are not used in any way that implies The Publisher endorsement of a product or service of an employer, and that the copies are not offered for sale as such. Authors are permitted to grant third party requests for reprinting, republishing or other types of reuse. The Authors may make limited distribution of all or portions of the above Paper prior to publication if they inform The Publisher of the nature and extent of such limited distribution prior there to. Authors retain all proprietary rights in any process, procedure, or article of manufacture described in The Paper. This agreement becomes null and void if and only if the above paper is not accepted and published by The Publisher, or is with drawn by the author(s) before acceptance by the Publisher.