Title: Entrepreneurs' business skills and growth orientation in business development

Authors: Ville-Veikko Piispanen; Kaarlo Paloniemi; Jaakko Simonen

Addresses: Business School, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland ' Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland ' Oulu Business School, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 4600, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland

Abstract: This article explores how the business skills that small and medium-sized entrepreneur possesses and value affect growth orientation in the context of business development. It focuses on the topic through a theoretical framework an entrepreneur and growth orientation. These two elements are key factors in growing and developing business and in strategic entrepreneurship (SE). SE balances two separate elements related to business development: advantage-seeking (AS) actions and opportunity-seeking (OS) actions. The findings of our exploratory quantitative study show that only the skills that entrepreneurs' value affect their growth orientation: the more entrepreneurs value a certain business skill or skills, the more significant they see their self-reported growth orientation to be. The findings further indicate the balance as strategic-oriented.

Keywords: business skill; growth orientation; advantage-seeking; strategic entrepreneurship; opportunity-seeking; balance; entrepreneur; SME.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.087855

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.32 No.4, pp.515 - 536

Received: 02 Dec 2015
Accepted: 30 May 2016
Published online: 06 Nov 2017 *

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