Thomas M. Box

A Contingency Model of New Manufacturing Firm Performance

A survey of new manufacturing firms yielded significant support for hypothesized relationships between psychological differences, background characteristics, and scanning behavior of the owner/founder and firm performance. In addition, a proposed contingency model of new manufacturing firm performance was tested using moderated regression analysis. This model suggests that a linear combination of psychological, background, and scanning characteristics of the owner/founder acting on firm performance may be moderated by industry dynamics.

Manufacturing entrepreneurs: An empirical study of the correlates of employment growth in the Tulsa MSA and rural East Texas

Abstract Manufacturing firms and firms totally dependent on manufacturing provide more than 50% of the jobs in the United States and other industrialized nations. In spite of the belief that the United States has become an “information economy,” it has recently been recognized by researchers, politicians and industry experts that the loss of Americas leadership position in manufacturing threatens the American industrial position. In addition, small firms provided most of the job growth in the decade of the 80s and the most innovation and new products. The impact of these factors indicates the importance of determining what it takes to be successful as a manufacturing entrepreneur. Beyond the importance to the national economy of understanding the success-related factors in manufacturing entrepreneurship, several stakeholder categories have a vested interest in this information as well. Job creation, job growth and economic development become major agenda items in the 1992 presidential campaign. Also, investors would like to have a model of small firm growth on which to base their investments in start-up firms. Finally, political units are looking for mechanisms to create much-needed new jobs to provide tax revenue. The purpose of this study was to: (1) determine the relationship between eight literature-based predictor variables and employment growth in entrepreneurial manufacturing firms and (2) attempt to develop a meaningful linear model, incorporating as many significant variables as possible from the original eight that would explain variance in firm performance. The focus of this study was 327 manufacturing entrepreneurs located in the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area and 13 contiguous counties in East Texas. Manufacturing entrepreneurs were defined as the founders of their firms. The firms included in the study were all less than ten years old, independent (not a division of some other firm) and had primary SIC codes between 2000 and 3999. Usable responses to a mail survey were 103, a 31.5% response rate. Results of this study suggest that age (of the entrepreneur) at founding, entrepreneurial management experience, industry experience and environmental scanning practices are significantly correlated with firm performance as measured by employment growth.

MANUFACTURING ENTREPRENEURS IN MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF FIRM PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT A mail survey of manufacturing entrepreneurs in Mississauga, Ontario, yielded new insights with regard to the fundamentally important question, “Why are some new manufacturing firms successful while others are not?” Investigators found that industry experience and environmental scanning intensity of the entrepreneur, as moderated by industry dynamism were significantly related to employment growth—a measure of a firms performance. However, in this study no relationship was found between the entrepreneurs Need for Achievement or Locus of Control and the performance of the firm founded.