Learning mode of small business owners

A. Willem () and Herman van Den Broeck

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to explore the learning mode of small business owners, from a theoretical stance, and based on empirical evidence. We distinguish between the required learning mode, the actual learning mode and the supported learning mode. Data were collected using the focus group method in a very heterogeneous sample of Belgian small business owners. The results indicate several gaps between the required, actual and supported learning modes, of which many are due to unawareness of learning needs and lack of reflective learning among small business owners. The data also indicate among others that solutions to fill learning gaps proposed in the literature are not applicable to all owners, e.g. not all owners are able to learn through networks.

Keywords: Belgium; learning capability; learning mode; learning gaps; learning process; learning support; reflective learning; research paper; small business owners; focus groups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2007-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-ent and nep-hrm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:07/453

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