Helena Sjögrén

The impact of global economic crisis on SMEs: Does entrepreneurial orientation matter?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in global economic crisis and whether it can mitigate the negative effects of economic crisis both on firms operations and on firms financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach is used to test the hypotheses. Principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis are used on the empirical survey data.Findings – Results based on a sample of almost 200 Finnish small and medium‐sized enterprises indicated that the different dimensions of the EO can have diverging effects on how firms are impacted by the recession. In general, the more innovative and proactive the firm is, the less its operations are affected by the recession and the more risk‐taking the firm is, the more its profitability is affected by recession.Research limitations/implications – A longitudinal design – rather than the current cross‐sectional design – would give a better premiss to explore the causal re...

Entrepreneurial orientation and performance – are sexes equal?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the different perceptions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of females compared to those of their male counterparts. EO and its links to performance are examined at the level of both the individual and the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple linear regression analyses of a data set with 301 employees in different industries reveal significant differences between genders. Findings – EO has a positive impact on performance at both individual and firm levels of analysis. Females tend to perceive their individual EO as lower than males, but their self-evaluated work performance is higher than that of males. The firm’s EO is also perceived differently by men and by women, but the perceptions of firm’s performance are similar. Research limitations/implications – The results draw attention to the differences between individuals when they evaluate firm-level constructs like EO. While the sample is based on a small number of firms, the findings sug...

Entrepreneurial orientation in small firms – values-attitudes-behavior approach

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and also apply the values-attitudes-behavior framework in the context of entrepreneurial behavio ...

Regulation compliance in small Finnish companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to learn more about how regulation affects small business in the Finnish context. The authors create a framework for understanding owner-managers’ attitudes towards business legislation. It is authors’ understanding that not enough is known about how small firms make strategic choices that drive business in a highly regulated environment. Design/methodology/approach – This paper contributes to the existing knowledge of entrepreneurship and small business management. The empirical data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from the postal survey. Differences between owner-managers’ attitudes towards business regulation were identified with factor and cluster analyses methods. Findings – Regulation often exerts only a limited influence over owner-managers’ decision-making. Family entrepreneurs are more compliant towards business regulation. Regulation is not too heavy a burden to all in business in Finland, even though Finland is a highly regulated country. Research l...

What drives entrepreneurial orientation in small firms? The roles of owner-manager and financial conditions

The economic importance of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship has increased during last decades significantly. Therefore, it is valuable to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the antecedents of entrepreneurial activity in SMEs. Our study investigates the drivers of entrepreneurially oriented behaviour (EO) as a main contributor to entrepreneurship in Finnish small owner-managed firms. We focus on entrepreneur’s work values and experience as entrepreneur and firm’s financial slack and financial conservatism. The empirical data were drawn from a mail survey of 194 Finnish owner-managed small companies. Our results reveal that owner-manager’s intrinsic and status work values and experience are the strongest drivers of EO. This study contributes to the EO literature by focusing on the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur or top manager as owner’s personality, values and identities are recognised as important factors fostering entrepreneurial behaviour, especially in the small firm context.

What does the owner-manager want and get out of a business? Are family firms different?

This paper aims to contribute to the existing knowledge of family firms and small business management. Small business owners have to carefully balance individual and business needs when making decisions about the extraction of profits from the company, most notably in times such as the current economic downturn. In many circumstances owner-managers will sacrifice their drawings in order to secure the future growth or even the survival of the firm. This may be even more pronounced in small family businesses. First, we show that small family firms’ owner-managers differ from other small firm owner-managers in terms of the amount and type of drawings they take from the company. Secondly, we examine the role of owner-manager work values as a potential link between family involvement and drawings strategy.

Strategic planning and firm performance: a comparison across countries and sectors

The level of uncertainty and pace of change in business environments is posing challenges for firms. The developed economies have transformed from the industrial era to the knowledge and service era, while emerging economies thrive with industrial growth. This poses the question of what the key drivers of corporate success are and how far they are different from the old earnings logic. We will focus on one special value-creating resource or capability, namely strategic planning. We empirically examine the performance consequences of strategic planning to determine in what contexts it pays off particularly well. We use data from a large-scale survey of about 2,500 organisations from developed and emerging countries. The survey responses represent a variety of industries from manufacturing to services. The analysis is based on general linear models, and the findings show significant performance differences across countries, industries, and firm size - with strategic planning explaining performance much better than any contextual characteristics.