Recognition of opportunities by growth minded owner managers of SME's

Hulbert, B. J., Gilmore, A. and Carson, D. (2009) Recognition of opportunities by growth minded owner managers of SME's. Ankara University International Marketing and Entrepreneurship Conference (AUMEC 2009). 05 - 08 Apr 2009.

Abstract

This research attempts to bring together the ideas from the entrepreneurship and marketing fields of study to create an understanding of the process of opportunity recognition by owner managers of established but rapidly growing SME's. Research using a qualitative methodology was carried out.

This consisted of in depth interviews of owner managers of twenty SME'S that had clearly demonstrated a desire to grow. In every case the firms had been established for more than 3 years, were managed by the founder who had maintained a significant shareholding in the business and had less than 250 employees.

The findings of this research are that management of opportunity in owner managed SME'S is actually a management function just as much as it may be an entrepreneurial one.

It requires innovative individuals but this does not mean they are entrepreneurs; it requires marketing skills in the strategic sense but does not need professional marketers or functional marketing.

Growing a firm requires a high level of management skills and experience but does not of necessity require high levels of creativity and innovation.

Opportunities can only be recognized on the basis of knowledge but that may be gained through experience or analysis and needs a trigger or motivating propensity, experiential knowledge being the dominant source of knowledge.

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