Robert T. Hamilton

Small business growth: recent evidence and new directions

Purpose – To review empirical contributions to the small business growth literature since the mid‐1990s.Design/methodology/approach – Narrative review of the literature using the framework adopted in previous reviews: management strategies; characteristics of the entrepreneur; environment/industry factors; and firm characteristics.Findings – The absence of any unifying theory means that the literature continues to feature a wide range of growth measures and model specifications. As a result of this, knowledge development appears fragmented rather than cumulative. New theoretical perspectives are needed if we are to develop our understanding of the growth process in small businesses.Research limitations/implications – Alternative types of research are suggested that focus on small business growth as a process rather than an episode. Future research needs to adopt multiple measures of growth and, more importantly, be based on theory longitudinal in scope but idiosyncratic in its focus. Empirical work should...

The financing preferences of small firm owners

Small owner‐managed firms typically operate with levels of debt, much of it short‐term, which are higher than those found in large companies. This paper investigates the financing preferences of a cross‐section of small firm owners. The findings support the view that the financing decisions of small firm owners are based on a demand‐side packing order of finance types. The resulting financial structures reflect a desire to minimise intrusion into the firms and are not entirely the consequence of persistent deficiencies in the provision of finance to small firms.

Managing Succession in Family-Owned Businesses

Mark Fox is a doctrol student in the department of Managment, Univeristy of Canterbury, christchurch. New Zeland. V. Nilkant and R.T Hamilton are senior lecture and professor respectively in the same department. this paper is directed at those involved with family-owned business, families and busines which will inevitably face the stress of an inter generational transfer. The research lietrature is brought together to reveal the system of relationship through which such sucession must be mananged. suggestions fro improved managmement are offered and the paper concludes with a suggestion for the design of future research.

Factors distinguishing small firm growers and non-growers

Why do some firms grow while others do not? This study identifies factors present in growing small firms that are absent in non-growers. An inductive method is used with a theoretical sample of businesses with contrasting growth histories, selected as matched pairs from the same manufacturing and service industries in the same urban location. Replication logic identified four factors: opportunistic perceptions of the external environment; controlled ambition of the owner-manager to grow; business culture of innovation and flexibility; and use of extensive private business networks, including portfolio entrepreneurship. The role of organizational learning in underpinning these factors was also noted. The paper ends with some limitations and suggestions for further research.

The Entrepreneur in Theory and Practice

The entrepreneur, in one form or another, has been around a long time in both economic theory and empirical studies of entry. Argues that these traditions have exhibited an over-concern with the entrepreneurs function at the expense of the supply of entrepreneurs, an area which has received only sporadic attention in the literature. It is this supply aspect which is critical to economic development and economists should now devote more attention to it.

Airline alliances—who benefits?

The advent of global airline alliances in the 1980s gave rise to concerns that increased monopoly power of major carriers would lead to large and sustained producer surpluses. These global alliances now enjoy dominant market shares in the industry. This review examines some 15 years of alliance experience and finds no conclusive evidence that alliance membership has yielded monopoly profits to the airlines. Improvements in terms of load factors and general productivity levels have, for the most part, been accompanied by fare reductions of similar magnitude, resulting in only modest gains to the carriers.

Small Business Development and Gender of Owner.

Reviews the entrepreneurship and small business literature in search of a basis for gender‐specific explanations of business development. Contends that small business development needs to be interpreted without resort to frameworks that exclude one gender or the other, and identifies a need for more research on how women act as owners and managers in small businesses.

A Historical Perspective on Small Firm Development

This paper presents a case study of the process of small firm growth, stability, and decline using historical method. The objective is to develop understanding of why growth is pursued when it is and hence advance understanding of the lack of persistence in growth over extended periods. Most empirical studies of small firm development have used cross-sectional designs and quantitative methods (usually multiple regression) to explain single episodes of growth measured over short intervals of time. These have generally yielded fairly weak explanations and are unable to say anything at all about why growth was embarked upon and what happens within the firm before, during, and after the growth phase. This study, in contrast, relates phases of growth, stability, and decline to a set of forces, external and internal, acting on and within the firm over time. Small firm development is revealed to be complex, the result of an idiosyncratic and unstable process involving the interplay of the local environment and features internal to the firm.

Corporate Divestment: An Overview

Brings together the different strands of the divestment literature – industrial organization, finance, and corporate strategy – which have been developing over the last 20 years. Points to be increased resort to divestment by corporate managers and suggests that this adaptive activity should now be accepted as a normal phase of company development. However, such acceptance is made difficult by factors which fall within the domain of managerial psychology. Provides an overview which should be useful to practitioners confronting divestment decisions and to academics embarking on new research in the area.

CHANGING CULTURES: AN INTERNATIONAL STUDY OF MIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS

This is a comparative study about the assimilation and integration of migrant entrepreneurs of Chinese and Indian origins. The research is based on surveys of 320 entrepreneurs who migrated to Manchester and 885 entrepreneurs whose ancestors moved to Singapore. With the dramatic change in national cultures associated with such migration, the study sought to identify the emergence of differences over time in the business behaviour and adherence to traditional family values. The main finding of the study is that these migrant communities are willing to adapt in terms of their traditional family values and that their lack of integration into mainstream society should not be ascribed to their strict adherence to such values.