Breaking Down the Barriers: Using Focus Groups to Research Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

DR. ROBERT BLACKBURN IS HSBC Professor of Small Business Studies and director of the Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University, England, and Dr. David Stokes is assistant director of the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University. This paper examines the use of a focus group method for investigating business owners. The method is almost absent in the study of business owners or their enterprises, or has been used as a precursor to quantitative-based research. It was found that the organisation, running and analysis of focus groups is resource intensive. In return, the method provides a richness of data uncommon even in many face-to-face data collection strategies. The method adopted is shown to unearth the motivations, rationales and experiences of business owners in relation to their succession strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ability of the method to provide stand-alone results and help overcome the culture gap between researchers and business owners.