Small Business Owners' Success Criteria, a Values Approach to Personal Differences

Marjan J. Gorgievski, M. Evelina Ascalon and Ute Stephan

Journal of Small Business Management, 2011, vol. 49, issue 2, 207-232

Abstract: This study of 150 Dutch small business owners, identified through business/network directories, investigated relationships between owners' understanding of success and their personal values. Business owners ranked 10 success criteria. Personal satisfaction, profitability, and satisfied stakeholders ranked highest. Multidimensional scaling techniques revealed two dimensions underlying the rank order of success criteria: person‐oriented (personal satisfaction versus business growth) and business‐oriented (profitability versus contributing back to society). Furthermore, business growth, profitability, and innovativeness were guided by self‐enhancing value orientations (power and achievement). Softer success criteria, such as having satisfied stakeholders and a good work–life balance, were guided by self‐transcendent value orientations (benevolence and universalism).

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00322.x (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:taf:ujbmxx:v:49:y:2011:i:2:p:207-232

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ujbm20

DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-627X.2011.00322.x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Small Business Management is currently edited by Eric Liguori

More articles in Journal of Small Business Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().