A new typology of micro-firm owner-managers

This article explores the extent to which the views of micro-firm owner-managers regarding growth and lifestyle issues affect their entrepreneurial behaviour. Semi-directed interviews were conducted with 79 owner-managers to inform a typology that consists of four owner-manager views associated with success, subsistence, hedonism and paternalism. This study investigates the differences in the behaviours associated with these four profiles. The representatives of only two types (success and paternalism) ‘want’ to grow; conversely, owner-managers of the other two types (hedonism and subsistence) do not. The findings show that micro-firm owner-managers are driven by varied and sometimes profoundly divergent views which will have substantial effects on a firm’s strategies and development.

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