Challenges associated with the Greek SMEs in the basin of Athens-Greece: an exploratory study

Marios I. Katsioloudes and Fauzia Jabeen

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2013, vol. 19, issue 3, 309-324

Abstract: The paper attempts to identify the motivation for business ownership, the factors contributing to success and problem areas and developmental issues attached to entrepreneurship related to small medium enterprises (SMEs) particularly in Athens, Greece. The first phase of the study attempted to identify the problem areas of entrepreneurs by an extensive review of the existing literature. The second phase incorporated a ground survey with groups of entrepreneurs (n = 113) for assessing the factors related to entrepreneurship. The prime motives for starting a business were to increase income, to obtain job security, and to secure independence. The entrepreneurs identified problems in the areas of securing long term and short term finances for establishing and running SMEs, confusing and complex tax structure, too much competition, government bureaucracy, and a weak economy as major bottlenecks. The paper is an important study taken in the entrepreneurship context in Athens, Greece.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; motivation; success factors; Athens; Greece; business ownership; income generation; job security; independence; SME finance; tax structure; competition; government bureaucracy; economic conditions. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=55305 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:19:y:2013:i:3:p:309-324

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().