Management (Small bussines & Enterprises) Essay

Management (Small bussines & Enterprises) - Essay Example There have been a number of researchers who have formulated a link between competitive advantage and personality traits. Especially in the area of small and medium enterprises, personality traits have reportedly played a significant role in explaining entrepreneurship. There are a number of researchers who want to further reinstate the link between personality traits and entrepreneurship in small and medium enterprises, for expanding and validating the study of personality (or psychological) traits approach. There have been several of researches which were conducted in the nineteen nineties and also earlier in the eighties. Unfortunately, there were a number of inconsistencies discovered between the empirical findings and theory, which eventually led the researchers in abandoning the personality traits approach in favour of Behavioural Approach which was considered to be more effective at that time. The Environmental Sensitive Approach was also used during the eighties and nineties, which was partially successful and it also contributed in further abandoning the personality traits approach in the study of SME’s. However, by the turn of the century, personality traits approach for studying entrepreneurship was once again gaining ground, and presently personality traits study is considered as one of the major schools of thought in better understanding entrepreneurship in the small and medium business environment. Paul Burns (2007, p.8) states ‘Despite the independence criteri a, SMEs could still include organisations managed by non-owner-managers. Even so, some of them may be entrepreneurs. We are still, therefore, left with our three groups – managers of small firms, owner-managers and entrepreneurs – without any clear delineation. However, it is likely to be true that the smaller the firm, particularly the owner-managed firm, the more important the personality and influence of the