Title: Owner motivation in small size family farms: insights from an exploratory study on the ornamental plant industry

Authors: Giuseppe Di Vita; Manuela Pilato; Valeria Allegra; Alfonso Silvio Zarbà

Addresses: Department of Agri-food and Environmental Systems Management, University of Catania, Viale Santa Sofia, 100-95123 Catania, Italy ' Faculty of Business, Law and Sport, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Winchester Business School, Winchester, UK ' Department of Agri-food and Environmental Systems Management, University of Catania, Viale Santa Sofia, 100-95123 Catania, Italy ' Department of Agri-food and Environmental Systems Management, University of Catania, Viale Santa Sofia, 100-95123 Catania, Italy

Abstract: This case study aims to analyse the owner motivations in the context of the ornamental plant sector. The analysis was designed in order to identify the owners motivations within family farm and it was conducted by segmenting a sample of ornamental plant firms into two sub-samples with different production cycle and economic size farm. Results allow to highlight how passion and inheritance items are particularly relevant for owners in both groups, while significant differences were observed between two sub samples concerning training education, profitability as well as the owner's experience. The findings also show interesting implication about the owner's decision making. Despite this study reports the results for a specific region and sector, its empirical applications could reasonably be extensible to other agricultural sectors, being indicative of the ongoing dynamics for modern agricultural productions of Mediterranean basin, where there remains a strong link between businesses and socio-familiar context.

Keywords: micro size farms; innovation; ownership; organisation training management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2019.102490

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2019 Vol.38 No.1/2, pp.60 - 77

Received: 21 Nov 2015
Accepted: 09 Mar 2016
Published online: 30 Sep 2019 *

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