TY - JOUR
T1 - Defining success in subsistence businesses
AU - Toledo-López, Arcelia
AU - Díaz-Pichardo, René
AU - Jiménez-Castañeda, Julio C.
AU - Sánchez-Medina, Patricia S.
PY - 2012/12
Y1 - 2012/12
N2 - Subsistence entrepreneurs play an important role in developing economies by forming small businesses that represent a way of life, providing employment at the base of the pyramid and contributing to the alleviation of poverty. The definition of success for subsistence businesses has not yet been well established in SMEs literature, in which success is related to financial measures. However, not all businesses can be measured with the same indicators of success. Financially-oriented measures of success may not always be appropriate for assessing socially embedded businesses. This paper begins to address this gap by assessing how subsistence entrepreneurs themselves define and achieve business success. For this exploratory research, in-depth interviews were conducted with eighty-five subsistence entrepreneurs. Discriminant function analysis typified five subsistence business groups: family-limited businesses, motivationally limited businesses, past boom businesses, followers, and leaders. Several factors separate the business groups, including the education and complacency of the entrepreneur, sales revenue, long-term business plans, acceptance of technology, growth intentions and commercialization into international markets. In contrast, socio-cultural attributions such as family value, goals, and motivation to get into and stay in business represented commonalities between subsistence businesses in terms of their definitions of success.
AB - Subsistence entrepreneurs play an important role in developing economies by forming small businesses that represent a way of life, providing employment at the base of the pyramid and contributing to the alleviation of poverty. The definition of success for subsistence businesses has not yet been well established in SMEs literature, in which success is related to financial measures. However, not all businesses can be measured with the same indicators of success. Financially-oriented measures of success may not always be appropriate for assessing socially embedded businesses. This paper begins to address this gap by assessing how subsistence entrepreneurs themselves define and achieve business success. For this exploratory research, in-depth interviews were conducted with eighty-five subsistence entrepreneurs. Discriminant function analysis typified five subsistence business groups: family-limited businesses, motivationally limited businesses, past boom businesses, followers, and leaders. Several factors separate the business groups, including the education and complacency of the entrepreneur, sales revenue, long-term business plans, acceptance of technology, growth intentions and commercialization into international markets. In contrast, socio-cultural attributions such as family value, goals, and motivation to get into and stay in business represented commonalities between subsistence businesses in terms of their definitions of success.
KW - Artisanal businesses
KW - Business success
KW - Entrepreneurs
KW - Subsistence business typologies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870294195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.02.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.02.006
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0148-2963
VL - 65
SP - 1658
EP - 1664
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
IS - 12
ER -