Title: Early growth states of small businesses in China: the business model perspective

Authors: Michael Jijin Zhang; Honghua Chen

Addresses: Department of Management, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut, 06825, USA ' School of Business, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China

Abstract: In this study, we drew on the business model research and the stage theory of business growth to develop a five states model of how small businesses in China grow in their early existence. The model suggests that a Chinese small business may progress through five states of early growth, depending on the extent to which the business addresses the four fundamental issues in business value (for whom to create value, what value to create, how to create value, and how to capture value). To evaluate the validity of our model, we developed a survey instrument for assessing the five different growth states and collected the survey data from 100 small and micro businesses operating in the City of Changsha in China. A factor analysis of the survey data provided some initial evidence for the model structure.

Keywords: small businesses; entrepreneurship; business growth; business model; China.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2018.094991

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2018 Vol.35 No.2, pp.220 - 235

Received: 28 Oct 2016
Accepted: 18 Jun 2017
Published online: 28 Sep 2018 *

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