Stephen Tagg

Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of Business Owners: The Role of Gender

There is a widely held belief that banks may be discriminating against female business owners. This study was designed to explore the perceptions held by bank loan officers of male and female business owners, using Bourdieus theory of practice and Kellys personal construct methodology. The research literature might lead to an expectation that the characteristics of the business owners would be relatively homogenous but that men and women business owners would be construed differently (for example women might be seen to lack drive). However, the results demonstrate heterogeneity in the constructs held by bank loan officers, and a particular concern with the character of the business owner. Significant gender differences were observed in only 20 of the 325 constructs elicited from 35 bank loan officers. Female bank loan officers were as likely as male bank loan officers to draw gender distinctions between business owners. Detailed multivariate analyses confirmed no evidence of systematic gender differences in the constructs held by bank loan officers of business owners.

Beyond portfolio entrepreneurship: multiple income sources in small firms

The economic activities of entrepreneurs are not confined to the ownership of a single firm, but encompass income generation from a variety of sources including wage labour, non-earned income and profit from secondary business ventures. This paper investigates the multiple income sources of a sample of 18 561 business owners in the UK. A latent class analysis revealed seven different groups of entrepreneurs differentiated by their degree of engagement in enterprise ownership and income generation. The results demonstrate the importance of multiple income sources in smaller firms and challenge previous assumptions that portfolio activities are expedited solely as a profit maximization strategy by growth-seeking entrepreneurs. While some use portfolio activities for the purpose of wealth accumulation, others use them as a survival mechanism. The results also highlight time variations in the use of portfolio activities. For some business owners, they are a long-term and relatively stable strategy contributing towards either the economic survival of marginal ventures or the development of high growth enterprises. For others, they are a time-limited strategy facilitating business entry or exit.

Measuring market orientation in the Indonesian retail context

The marketing literature reveals little agreement on the generalizability of two market orientation scales that were developed in earlier works. In this study, a market orientation scale was developed for a specific context,namely retailing and then assessed for reliability and validity. The data were collected from Indonesian retail firms. Three alternative models of the dimension structure of the market orientation construct were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. This procedure was then followed by a purifying process in order to investigate the stability of the items in the final MARKOR scale.The findings suggested that the four multi-item scales developed showed evidence of reliability and validity in this sample. Further, the findings showed that market orientation has positive effects on both supplier partnership and retail performance.

Social constructionism and personal constructivism: Getting the business owner's view on the role of sex and gender

Purpose – While the entrepreneurship and small business research literature has tended to portray women as lesser than men in identifying the differences between them, little research has looked at how gender is construed in business ownership. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new focus, examining how male and female business owners construe each other.Design/methodology/approach – The research employs George Kellys personal construct theory and repertory grids to examine the constructs associated with male and female business owners.Findings – It is found that there are many constructs used to describe business owners and, counter to predictions from some of the literature review, few differences between the way in which male and female business owners are construed. The paper offers explanations as to why so few differences are found.Research limitations/implications – The sample is limited to just one area of Britain and the businesses had all been established in the last three years. This wi...

Giving at risk? Examining perceived risk and blood donation behaviour

This paper builds on previous research into blood donation behaviour, focusing on perceptions of risk associated with blood donation in the UK. It compares indicators of risk perceptions obtained through probability and importance indicators and calculated using additive versus multiplicative models. It examines the relationships between perceived risk and blood donation with specific attention to donation frequency. The findings demonstrate that apparent perceived risk in blood donation varies substantially depending on the indicator that is used and that a more accurate indicator of risk is obtained if two components of risk are combined through a multiplicative model rather than an additive one. Social risk emerged as the more prominent aspect of perceived risk, implying a high level of trust by donors in the Blood Transfusion Service. Perceived risk was found to be significantly associated with donation frequency, highlighting the need to keep track of donors and to communicate with those whose donations lapse.

Perceptions and experience of employment regulation in UK small firms

The view that excessive regulation constrains small business growth has been a persistent theme within business and policy communities, although recent studies have demonstrated the actual effects of regulation to be relatively modest. A prior small-scale study proposed four reasons why employment legislation does “not damage” small firms. We attempt to assess the robustness of these propositions in a large-scale survey of 16 779 small firms. Results provide empirical support for three propositions. Firstly, perceived dissatisfaction masks actual effects. Secondly, competitive conditions mediate regulatory effects; however, even resource-constrained firms reported few negative effects. Thirdly, informality eases regulatory impact. Results failed to confirm that older laws are ‘routinised’. Length of time as a business owner was found to be more influential than age of regulation, with owners who have been in business for many years having a longer ‘window of exposure’ increasing their likelihood of experiencing negative and positive effects.

Towards a universal model of internet banking adoption: initial conceptualization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that customer readiness and web-channel readiness for internet banking (IB) adoption are the twin universal determinants of retail customers’ attitudes and intention towards IB-adoption. The paper delineates IB-readiness as the state of preparedness, ability, and willingness to engage in IB, and the authors argue that both the potential banking customer and the financial institutions web-channel must be equally ready before IB-adoption can occur. This paper presents the results of the initial test of the IB-readiness model with a sample of retail banking customers in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach – Nine customer-related and ten channel-related predictor-variables isolated from existing literature were tested for their effects on attitude and intention towards IB-adoption. Seven demographic mediators were also tested for their impacts on the effects of the predictor-variables on attitude and intention. A sample of 1,000 customers was surveyed. Mult...

The user interface of the data analysis package: some lines of development

The general purpose data analysis package is characterized by its user-oriented interface. This paper discusses the nature of the social research package user, and examines features of the conversational package SCSS to point out the important lines of package development. A discussion of these developments covers the areas of data structure flexibility, facilities for model manipulation and testing, self-documentation, adaptability to both expert and novice package users, as well as the facilities of table, graphics and statistics generation systems. Not all of these developments are equally feasible, because they put possibly conflicting pressures on the form of the user interface. The continuing number of users of data analysis packages will continue to make this an interesting area of user-interface development.

A grounded theory of doctors' information search behaviour. Implications for information provision, pharmaceutical market entry and development

This research examines the information search and usage behaviour of physicians when they choose pharmaceutical treatments for their patients. It details this behaviour, its causes, variations and information sources. Grounded Theory was used, with data collection primarily based on depth interviews with primary and secondary care physicians. Two main categories of search behaviour emerged and were labelled self-referencing and surrogating. Self-referencing describes the process where physicians first use internal, patient case experiences to discover behavioral patterns for the successful treatment of patients. If insufficient confidence is held in their internal knowledge, physicians will attempt to use the patient case experience of external sources and surrogate this experience as their own. Recommendations are made regarding matching the information usage behaviors of physicians with that provided by organisations and marketing outputs.

The advertising agency manager’s response patterns to a mail survey and follow‐ups

This study reports findings about British advertising agency managers’ response patterns to a mail survey and four follow‐up techniques (original, photocopy, postcard and letter), which were manipulated to determine their individual impact on response rate. Findings should provide original insights to mail survey researchers planning to sample advertising agency managers in reducing both non‐response and sampling bias. The initial response rate was just over 18 per cent and four follow‐up techniques altogether lifted the overall response rate to a little less than 32 per cent. There are several statistically significant differences of importance to mail researchers in reducing non‐response bias and increasing response rate.