Growth Management Priorities in Service- and Technology- Based Micro-Enterprises in Sparsely Populated Areas

Matti Muhos, Kai Hanninen, Kati Vehmas and Martti Saarela
Additional contact information
Matti Muhos: University of Oulu, Finland
Kai Hanninen: University of Oulu, Finland
Kati Vehmas: University of Lapland, Finland
Martti Saarela: University of Oulu, Finland

from ToKnowPress

Abstract: Micro-sized enterprises are the most common type of firm within the European Union, accounting for 93.2% of all enterprises. The aim of this study was to clarify managerial priorities that owner-managers have perceived critical and targeted during the growth of micro-sized enterprises in a sparsely populated area (SPA). This retrospective multiple case study reached this aim by investigating owner-managers' experiences from the early growth process and by reflecting on these experiences through the meta-analytical management priority framework. The contextual management priorities were visited from the perspectives of service- and technology-based micro-enterprises in SPAs. The owner- managers of service- and tech-based micros paid primary attention to three shared priorities: human resources, the development and delivery of services/products and organisational design, but in a different order and with context-specific characteristics. In service-based firms, owner-managers' primary attention was on human resource management; meanwhile, the attention of owner-managers was primarily on the development and delivery of products/technology.

Keywords: Growth; growth management; management priorities; service-based business; technology-based business; micro-enterprise; sparsely populated area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-26-0/110.pdf full text (application/pdf)
http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-26-0.pdf Conference Programme (application/pdf)

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:tkp:mklp20:379

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Expanding Horizons: Business, Management and Technology for Better Society from ToKnowPress
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maks Jezovnik ().