Why are MMU researchers exploring the growth mindset of entrepreneurs?

Recent research by the Centre for Enterprise shows that the firm’s characteristics are much less important than previously thought with regard to determining which firms grow.

Since the economic downturn in 2008, business growth has remained high on the political agenda, with job creation among small to medium enterprises (SMEs) expected to help drive economic recovery. And it is because of this that researchers within the Centre for Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) have embarked on a national study to find out more about the mindset of entrepreneurs who lead high growth businesses. Whilst previously researchers have often been interested in the characteristics of the firm, our research will be focusing on the entrepreneur behind the business.

Recent research carried out by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC), led by Warwick Business School, shows that the firm’s characteristics are much less important than previously thought with regard to determining which firms grow.  By creating a new longitudinal dataset from existing government business data, researchers have challenged the idea that a tiny number of ‘gazelle’ businesses[1] are responsible for most new jobs or that certain types of business – high tech small firms for example – would drive job creation. We now know that jobs are created in firms of all sizes, and in older as well as new businesses. We also know that growth happens in all sectors, all regions and that incidence of high growth firms is almost as high in rural as urban areas.  In short, growth can happen in any business and evidence of this is clearly demonstrated in GrowthAccelerator’s 2013 annual report, Where High Growth Happens.

It is this shift away from the emphasis on the ‘gazelle’ firm that is leading to new perspectives, including interest in the role of the growth entrepreneur. There is growing interest among the research community in what it is about a business leader that determines whether or not their business grows. Through our research we will consider whether or not there is a ‘growth mindset’ that drives some businesses to grow, when others do not.  To try to understand this, we will use some interesting theoretical perspectives from the fields of entrepreneurial cognition, genetics and the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Following a review of the relevant literature, we have developed a framework for a set of in-depth interviews with successful business leaders across the country, including some of the businesses that GrowthAccelerator support. Through these interviews we are exploring how high growth entrepreneurs approach the development of their business(es) and whether their approach is related in any way to theories accepted by the research community.  Following the collection of this data we will be conducting a survey over Easter and the results of our research will be published on the GrowthAccelerator website during Summer 2014.

The research team at MMU are going to be using the GrowthAccelerator blog space to give you an insight into the study research over the next few weeks and we hope that you’ll join us to find out more.

Professor Lynn Martin

Director of the Centre for Enterprise, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Manchester Metropolitan University, President of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship

[1] The term ‘gazelle’ was coined in the 1970s by an economic geographer called David Birch to describe young, small, fast growing businesses thought to be responsible for creating a very large proportion of new jobs.

 

Further Blog Posts:

Post 1 – Why are MMU researchers exploring the growth mind-set of entrepreneurs

Post 2 – Entrepreneurial cognition and the use of heuristics

Post 3 – Growth intention and the role of ambition in entrepreneurship

Post 4 – Does entrepreneurial expertise exist?

Post 5 – Could there be a gene for business growth?