Motivations and Aspirations of Business Founders

Abstract

R.T. Hamilton is currently senior lecture and director of the MBA programme at the university of Cantebury, christchurch, New Zeland, and was previously at the London Business school and stirling university, in the UK. The main purpose of theis paper is to present a retrospectiv analysis which assesss the extent to which the characteristics of business founders are stable over timie. it finds that ther is an apparent stability over time but theevidence does show that with unemployment rising over time tis is beoming a push factor in an increasing propertion of new business formatlitions. on firm size the evidence is that business which have been pushed into existence and survived are not significantly different from those which are not subject to this particular pressure.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bollard, A. (1984), "Small firms and industrial change in New Zealand", Quarterly Predictions (June edition), NZ Institute of Economic Research, Wellington.

Bolton Report, (1971), Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, Cmnd. 4811, London, HMSO.

Cooper, A. C. , and Dunkelberg, W. C. (1986), "Entrepreneurship and paths to business ownership", Strategic Management Journal, vol. 7, pp 53-68.

Dwyer, M. et al (1985), "Self-employment and small business", Planning Paper No. 22, NZ Planning Council, Wellington.

Frank, C. E. J. et al (1984), "Issues in small firms research of relevance to policy making", Regional Studies, vol. 83.3, pp 257-266.

Franklin, S. G. , and Goodwin, J. S. (1983), "Problems of small business and sources of assistance: a survey", Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 21 (April), pp 5-12.

Golby, C. W. , and Johns, G. (1971), "Attitude and Motivation", Research Report No. 7, Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, London, HMSO.

Leyshon, A. (1982), "The UK Government Small Business Model a Review", International Small Business Journal, vol. 1, 1 (Autumn), pp 58-66.

Mayer, K. B. , and Goldstein, S. (1961), "The first two years small business growth and survival problems", Washington DC, US Small Business Administration.

10.

New Zealand Business Who's Who, (various years). Published annually by FEP Productions Ltd., Wellington.

11.

Stanworth, J. , and Curran, J. (1976), "Growth and the small firm an alternative view", Journal of Management Studies, vol. 13, pp 95-110.

12.

Storey, D. J. (1982), Entrepreneurship and the New Firm, London, Croom Helm Ltd.

13.

Storey, D. J. (1985), "The problems facing new firms", The Journal of Management Studies, vol. 22, pp 327-345.

14.

Tamari, M. (1971[ai), "A postal questionnaire survey of small firms; an analysis of financial data", Research Report No. 16, Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, London, HMSO.

15.

Tamari, M. (1971[b2), "A postal questionnaire survey of small firms, non-financial data, tables, definitions, and notes", Research Report No. 17, Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, London, HMSO.

16.

Young, J. E. (1985), "A survey of chief executive officers of small firms that have recently gone public", International Small Business Journal, vol. 4 (Winter), pp 49-63.