Edward G. Rogoff

“Who Done It?” Attributions by Entrepreneurs and Experts of the Factors that Cause and Impede Small Business Success

Attribution theory deals with how individuals infer causality between events and has been used to explain various social psychological phenomena such as achievement, sex stereotyping, and the impact of reward on behavior. But the direct application of the theory to entrepreneurship has been made only recently. The present study tests for the existence of a self‐serving attribution bias among entrepreneurs when they enumerate the factors that contribute to or impede their business success as well as for the presence of an actor–observer attribution bias. Three samples are compared. Two are samples of entrepreneurs: one of independent pharmacists and the other a broadly based sample of business owners. A third sample is of experts. The presence of a self‐serving attribution bias is shown in the two business owners’ samples. In addition, clear differences are shown between the entrepreneurs and the experts, confirming the expectation of an actor–observer attribution bias.

Research Note: Comparison of Small Businesses with Family Participation versus Small Businesses Without Family Participation: An Investigation of Differences in Goals, Attitudes, and Family/Business Conflict:

This study investigates three important issues in a family business: (1) Whether there is a significant difference, relative to their goals and attitudes, between owners of businesses with family participation and owners of businesses without family participation; (2) whether owners of businesses with family participation perceive higher levels of business-family conflict than owners of businesses without family participation; and (3) whether owners of businesses with family participation view business-family conflict as a significant impediment to their business performance. We conducted a survey of 231 small business owners in midsize cities in the northeastern and midwestern United States. Of the total sample, 118 are businesses in which two or more family members are employed. This study examines both the reported conflict and the positives of family-member involvement. The findings indicate that there is no overall difference in business-related goals between the two groups, but that owners of businesses with family participation do experience significantly more business-family conflict. The study also concludes that this conflict is generally well managed and does not interfere with business objectives. In fact, the authors conclude that owners of businesses with family participation see the involvement of family members as a positive. Managerial implications and research suggestions are also discussed.

Sampling Minority Business Owners and Their Families: The Understudied Entrepreneurial Experience

We here review and critique prior research on minority entrepreneurship, paying particular attention to the contributions and limitations of deployed sampling techniques and research methodologies. As based on this review, we then introduce the 2003 and 2005 National Minority Business Owner Surveys—a comprehensive and primary data collection effort that used varied methodologies to secure in‐depth information about random national samples of African American, Korean American, and Mexican American populations as well as a comparison sample of nonminority business owners. We present the initial business ownership profiles developed with these recent data, in part, as a benchmark of the U.S. entrepreneurial experience, and compare the profiles with those presented in prior research. These profiles document similarities and differences across the four groups and provide an empirical foundation for understanding the origin of those similarities and differences. No longer can we ignore the in‐depth study of minority businesses and their owning families nor can we simply assume that all businesses are the same, regardless of minority status or ethnicity.

SEGMENTING THE POPULATION OF ENTREPRENEURS: A CLUSTER ANALYSIS STUDY

This paper contributes to our understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the US by showing that ethnicity alone should not be used to describe or categorize small business owners. We examine a sample of 508 entrepreneurs from three minority groups (African, Mexican, and Korean Americans) and a white group using cluster analysis to explore a categorization pattern that best describes the differences among these entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that minority entrepreneurs are in fact a very heterogeneous group on a multitude of dimensions such as motivations for entry, satisfaction with the business, nature of problems experienced, and demographics of the business such as its size and gross income. Based on our findings, we recommend that educational and support programs targeting minority entrepreneurs should consider other variables rather than focusing on ethnicity alone.

The effect of entrepreneurial context on the performance of new ventures

Purpose – This empirical study aims to test the impact of four types of entrepreneurial context on the growth and success rates of new ventures in China and related the findings to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship dating back 2,500 years to ancient China. Design/methodology/approach – After describing the business guidelines given by Fan Li, an entrepreneurial merchant selling Chinese medicines in ancient times, a conceptual framework was extracted as the basis for a discussion of the relationship between entrepreneurial context and entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurial context was conceptualized as being composed of family, social, business and institutional components. Five hypotheses about the influence of these different context variables on entrepreneurial activities were developed. From data compiled from the sampling of 239 business entrepreneurs in Beijing, a hierarchical regression was formed and the hypotheses tested. Findings – The impact of entrepreneurial context on entrepreneu...

FINANCIAL INTERMINGLING IN KOREAN-AMERICAN AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESSES

This study explores the financial intermingling behavior of Mexican-American and Korean-American owned and operated small businesses. It posits that ethnically-owned and -operated small businesses with strong familial ties and more limited access to financial capital are more likely to intermingle financial resources than other small businesses. Mexican-American small business owners typically have very strong familial ties, while Korean-American small business owners typically have very strong community ties. Perhaps more importantly, Mexican-American small business owners have less access to pools of community capital than Korean-American small business owners. Therefore, it is expected that Mexican-American small business owners are more likely to intermingle financial resources than Korean-American small business owners. Even when controlling for the time in United States and English language spoken in the household, this study suggests Mexican-American small business owners are more likely to intermingle financial resources than Korean-American small business owners. Within these two ethnic groups, similar factors contribute to intermingling. Small business owners living in rural areas and borrowers are more likely to intermingle financial resources for both ethnic groups.

Exploring the Impact of Education on Korean- American Entrepreneurs

Education has been shown to have myriad effects on people, from increasing their incomes to changing their views of the world. In the area of entrepreneurship, education creates opportunities and increases the rate of entrepreneurial activity. This study explores educationʼs effects on the immigrant entrepreneurship development processes and outcomes in the context of Korean-Americans by comparing a national sample of Korean-Americans with differing amounts of education. The sample is part of the National Minority Business Owners Surveys (NMBOS) carried out by the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch College between 2003 and 2005. The authors hypothesize that high-education Korean-Americans will have larger and more successful businesses, have more varying types of businesses, and follow differing paths to business formation. In addition, the authors hypothesize that motivations, goals, and attitudes toward their businesses, families, and their lives generally will be different. Among other things, confidence and level of satisfaction with their business will be higher for the high-education group. The study finds that while the low- and high-education groups vary in their types of businesses, the paths followed into those businesses, and the size of their businesses, they are very similar as to their attitudes, motivations, and family interactions. Implications for future research are discussed.