Small Business Management

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1 Definition of smaller enterprises

There are various definitions of smaller enterprises provided from different times and areas. One of the earliest definitions was provided by Bolton Report (1971), which has indicated that a small enterprise should meet three criteria: independent (not part of a larger enterprise); managed in a personalized manner(simple management structure); relatively small share of the market(the enterprise is a price ‘taker’ rather than price ‘maker’). There are also quantitative definition of the smaller enterprise in terms of measurement of the assets, turnover, profitability and employment from different sectors and countries (Bolton, 1971).

2 What is entrepreneurial small business

Throughout Europe, great attention has been paid to the small business area and to the contribution that entrepreneurial small businesses can bring beneficial to transforming the economy (EiM, 1994).The concept of entrepreneurship is often considered with new venture creation and small enterprise management, and the terms of owner-manager and self-employment (Gibb, 1996). While Kirby (2003) has argued that entrepreneurship is far broader than these concepts mentioned above. Not all owner-managers can be considered as entrepreneurs, nor are all small business entrepreneurial (Carland et al., 1984). Carland also has argued that entrepreneurial small business is aiming at profitability and growth, and the business is regarded to be innovative.

3 Strategy, management and growth in entrepreneurial SMEs enterprises

According to Deakins and Freel (1998), the literature on entrepreneurship process has attempted to dichotomies into two approaches, which is from the nature of entrepreneurs and their role in econo...

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