An Exploratory Study on Small Business Website Creation and Usage

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Chuleeporn Changchit ◽  
Tim Klaus
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Market Share ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Web Presence

This study aims at exploring the factors related to the implementation of E-commerce websites by small business owners. While large organizations often consider E-commerce as a fundamental piece of their business strategy, small businesses place varying degrees of importance on E-commerce as a strategic tool to business success. Through a survey of small businesses, this study examines the creation and usage of E-commerce websites for small businesses. For companies with only a web presence, as well as for companies with an E-commerce website, the top two reasons for an E-commerce website identified by respondents of this study are to increase the profits of the company and to increase the market share. The study also found that factors such as lack of management support and costs greater than benefits were not detrimental to the decision to implement an E-commerce solution. Additional factors motivating small businesses to create and use E-commerce websites include the ability to better respond to customer demands and increased profits as a result of having E-commerce websites. This study contributes to the E-commerce literature by highlighting motivations of small business owners as they consider implementing E-commerce solutions.

Social Commerce Benefits for Small Businesses

2019 ◽  
pp. 1237-1255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludwig Christian Schaupp ◽  
France Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Social Commerce ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Stakeholder Pressure ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Small businesses represent an important element of many western economies. However, they often struggle with resources needed to succeed, and small business owners often have to perform many, if not all, roles in their organizations. One of the key functions that small businesses need to excel at for business success today is social commerce since much of their business is migrating towards the use of social media for business. In this study, determinants of social commerce benefits for small businesses are explored. Using survey data from 60 small companies, this research identifies stakeholder pressure and partner pressure as the most significant factors in determining social commerce benefits for small business. Implications of these findings and provide suggestions for future research are discussed.

Social Commerce Benefits for Small Businesses

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludwig Christian Schaupp ◽  
France Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Social Commerce ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Stakeholder Pressure ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Small businesses represent an important element of many western economies. However, they often struggle with resources needed to succeed, and small business owners often have to perform many, if not all, roles in their organizations. One of the key functions that small businesses need to excel at for business success today is social commerce since much of their business is migrating towards the use of social media for business. In this study, determinants of social commerce benefits for small businesses are explored. Using survey data from 60 small companies, this research identifies stakeholder pressure and partner pressure as the most significant factors in determining social commerce benefits for small business. Implications of these findings and provide suggestions for future research are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of Predicting Perceived Success and Survival of Small Businesses

1999 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Goldenberg ◽  
Theresa Kline
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Planning Activity ◽  
Perceived Success ◽  
Marketing Variables ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
Financial Base

This study examined a variety of predictors as they related to survival of small businesses and their perceived success. Specifically, we assessed the relationships of perceptions of success and survival of small businesses with the motivational sources to begin the business, the four requirements cited by Drucker (1985), marketing and business planning activity, financial base, handling of business problems and identified sources of assistance with those problems, and demographics or business backgrounds of the small business owners. 128 small business owners representing the service, manufacturing, and retail sectors were interviewed. The marketing variables were the only ones that were predictive of success, suggesting the need for a more comprehensive framework to assess success of small businesses.

Entrepreneurs' Contributions to Small Business

2015 ◽  
pp. 168-198
Author(s):  
M. Gordon Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Success Factor ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Small Business Success ◽  
The One

This chapter compares success factors and failure factors of small businesses. In an attempt to determine the relative importance of these factors, the two sets are compared. Thus, each failure factor is related to a corresponding success factor. A discussion of the aspects related to small business success and failure sets the context for the comparison. The relatively more important success factor involves aspects related to administration. Unfortunately, this is the one aspect that most small business owners/managers either lack the skills to perform or the time to allocate to this function. Within the administration, function leadership emerged as a relatively important skill contributing to small business success.

Measuring Success in Family Businesses: The Concept of Configurational Fit

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Hienerth ◽  
Alexander Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Comparable Data ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
Success Measurement ◽  
Success Evaluation ◽  
As Effects

The problems associated with measuring success in small businesses are primarily caused by a lack of comparable data due to the ambiguity of “success” and by subjective biases. Success evaluation is dominated by the estimates of business owners, who tend to overestimate overall success and internal strengths. However, reliable success measurement instruments would be useful for small business owners/managers as well as small business policymakers. The main purposes of this article are to compare various measures of success, to explore the differences in their outcomes, and to analyze whether a model of success measurement using configurational fit can be used to overcome subjective biases. The study is based on a recent survey of 103 small family-owned businesses in the eastern Austrian border region. Our analysis of the data confirmed the existence of the measurement problems mentioned above. Although some individual indicators show significant biases as well as effects due to company age, size, and industry, the aggregated indicator based on the concept of configurational fit seems to be an appropriate means of overcoming most of these drawbacks.

scholarly journals The perception of sponsorship usefulness among South African small business owners

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-488
Author(s):  
Catherine Mpolokeng Sephapo ◽  
Johannes Arnoldus Wiid ◽  
Michael Colin Cant
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Small Business ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Brand Image ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Marketing Tool ◽  
Marketing Budgets

Sponsorship is a powerful marketing tool that organisations in South Africa are embracing. From the evaluation of the sponsorship growth over the years, the industry in South Africa has developed from a R63 million industry in 1985 to the value of just under R7 billion in 2011 (City Press, 2012). Small businesses in South Africa are faced with the challenge of effectively reaching target segments. These small businesses are restricted in terms of limited marketing budgets and therefore need alternative ways of improving their brands in the eyes of the consumer. Theoretically, sponsorship is considered to improve the brand image of an organisation and ultimately improve sales. However, the question that this study aims to answer is whether small business owners perceive sponsorship to be a useful tool that even they can utilise. The study made use of a quantitative approach whereby a web-based questionnaire was distributed to small business owners. The findings indicated that the general attitude towards sponsorship as a marketing tool is positive. The correlation between sponsor sincerity and sponsorship usefulness was found positive; however, average in strength. Although sponsorship is seen as a useful tool, 15.4% of the respondents indicated that they would not consider using this marketing tool. This response may provide an opportunity for further research to be conducted which may shed some light on the strategies small business owners perceive to be most effective for their unique circumstances

Growth and Development of Small Business Through Microfinance Activities in Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-34
Author(s):  
Chandra Prasad Dhakal
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Economic Activities

Small businesses play important role for economic development and stability. It develops access in financial services through enhancing economic activities. The study analyzes the growth and development of small businesses that enhance through the support of micro finance in Nepal. Descriptive and inferential were used to collected data and collected data were analyzed through using multiple linear regression analysis. Only 124 small business owners were selected for this study. The study helps to find out the growth of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and small businesses in emerging economy in Nepal. It also assists MFIs to assess the effectiveness of their services and help to efficient utilization of available resources in the economy of Nepal.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Courtney Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
The Impact

This introduction describes how encouraging a diversity of small businesses can help support a Native Nation’s long-term economic stability, but goes further to demonstrate this uniquely through the eyes of the small-business owners themselves along with an in-depth examination of their local, national, and international contexts. In doing so, it describes how this book also addresses the ways in which Native Nations, by supporting small business resilience, are responding in politically and socioeconomically meaningful ways to settler-colonial economic subjugations. This introduction further describes how the book unpacks the layers of small-business complications specific to Native Nations and American Indian business owners while speaking to larger theoretical questions regarding the impact of small businesses in a global indigenous context. Debates regarding economic sovereignty versus economic power, measures of autonomy, land status, economic identity, fluctuating relationships with settler-colonial society, and the growth of neoliberalism (along with its accompanying “structural adjustment” policies) meet with specific practices, such as the implementation of guaranteed annual incomes, cultural revitalization actions, environmental justice movements, and the potentially precarious choices of economic development—issues that are exacerbated during times of economic precarity, such as the Great Recession.

The Most Critical Problem for the Fledgling Small Business: Getting Sales

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Buckman Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Critical Problem ◽  
Paper Work ◽  
Stage 1 ◽  
Selling Process ◽  
Regulation Costs

The most pressing problem of small business owners is how to get sales now and in the future. Items such as inflation, taxes, government regulation, costs of paper work, etc. become more important as a small business moves beyond stage 1 and possibly 2. Yet even then, how to get customers should still be the significant focus. Many entrepreneurs, especially providers of services, rely almost exclusively on word-of-mouth, which is often ineffectively utilized and, as the major source of business, should not be relied on. The entire selling process must be focused on in the first stage to change the survival rate of small businesses.

scholarly journals Are international small business owners really that different?

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-117
Author(s):  
Sarah Gundlach ◽  
Andre Sammartino
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Traits ◽  
Tolerance For Ambiguity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of individual traits and attributes on the entrepreneurial and internationalization actions of Australian businesswomen, many of whom run small businesses. Design/methodology/approach This study is exploratory and quantitative, based on a questionnaire survey of 323 Australian businesswomen. Drawing upon the extant literature on internationalization, gender and entrepreneurship, the study explores two micro-foundational relationships of interest – personality and capability assessment differences between female business owners and their employed counterparts, and the impact of such traits and assessments on their internationalization. A further question is explored in terms of any differentials in perceptions of barriers in internationalization. Findings The findings show key personality dimensions do not differ dramatically between Australian businesswomen working in their own businesses (i.e. entrepreneurs) or as employees in organizations, while there are surprisingly few differences between women who are engaged internationally and those yet to do so. When comparing the female entrepreneurs and employees, in particular, the findings around tolerance for ambiguity and management efficacy are notably counterintuitive. This leads to the development of testable propositions to refine the causal claims in this domain. Practical implications The study calls into question the distinctiveness of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial endeavors, at least for female businesswomen. Originality/value By including entrepreneurs and employees, women who have engaged internationally and those that are yet to do so, the study avoids some of the potential self-selection and confirmation biases inherent in studies of only entrepreneurs or small business owners. The investigation of individual traits, attributes and experiences as micro-foundations for internationalization motivations challenges existing theories of small business expansion.

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