The Common Causes of Small Business Failures, Article Review Example

Quantitative

Marsh’s (2013) research delves into the role of ethics in business leadership. Ethic’s role in business, the researcher argues, is contingent upon a leader’s frame of reference or background, according to previous moral or ethical dilemmas they’ve had to face. Marsh’s methodology included the use/examination of 28 business executives in a quantitative manner, in which the researcher conducted in-depth interviews in which the participants revealed a previously solved moral/ethical dilemma that in turn was the crux by which they participants shaped their framework for ethical values. March came up with two models through this methodology: a basic framework for ethics that examines leadership skills and the ethics called upon by each participants in each interview and then how the participants’ ethical frameworks developed from this nascent incident.

As with most quantitative studies, Marsh’s study was only susceptible to participants’ veracity during the in-depth interviews. In the end Marsh’s study revealed the basis of living experientially. That is, that such learning (learning from experience instead of something innate or vicarious) is the basis of personal awareness. This abstract thought/conclusion may be difficult to quantify, but the researcher presents several models of success in his interviews by which judging from previous successes participants were able to grow in their ethical behavior. The study does justice to the problem presented by Marsh, in that the development of a participant’s personal values will later match their ethical leadership skills. The research’s only problems include rapport (or lack of) between researcher and participant and participants’ memories of the inciting ethical incident.

Qualitative

Hunter’s (2011)study focuses on the failures of small businesses and the causes therein. The researcher employed the use or narrative and comment to fuel the research: interviews were given to three participants with experience in twelve different small business bankruptcies. The researcher’s methodology included narration done both temporally and chronologically. Thus, there was both structure and a beginning and an end. All of the interviews were transcribed and analyzed in order to find common themes within the narrative. Thus, like Marsh’s (2013) research, the methodology was susceptible to human error through subjective memory. The researcher tried to curtail this by adopting McCracken’s “long interview” so that all details were accounted for and made applicable to try and form an unbiased response (thus, the researcher tried to curtail human error through subjective memory).

Hunter (2011) found through his research that it is up to the small business owner to actively engage in processes and strategies that aid in controlling the outcome of their business. One area in which the researcher failed in their research is in their results: the researcher found that it’s up to the business owner to determine what they can and cannot control in their business and to act accordingly; however, such a response to an atmosphere in which the whim of the market plays a hand, cannot be fully accounted for by one individual. Thus, although their research informs the area of business, it does not, however result in an applicable formula for success, or rather, for curtailing failure (bankruptcy). The idiom the researcher suggests, that the business leader must have passion for their business to succeed does not equip said business to succeed, as sheer willpower does not create success.

Mixed Review

Satirenjit, Alistair, & Martin (2010) present a report on the study of the examination of the association of ownership and corporate entrepreneurship structures in FTSE100 companies in the U.K. The study focuses more on the link between the two (ownership and corporate entrepreneurship) whereas previous studies focuses solely on them as separate entities. Thus, the problem the study tries to rectify is this increasing gap. The researchers’ methodology in this study includes a mixed method: quantitative and qualitative, wherein the use of SPSS statistical measures were used for the quantitative approach and a classification system was used for the qualitative approach.

Researchers found that in companies with a large amount of executive ownership there was no lack of spirit in building an entrepreneurial business. The quantitative approach revealed similar results. One hiccup in the results, however, included no clear delineation as to the overall influence of “block holders” on the results of “entrepreneurial activities”. Overall the research was far-reaching in its hope to encompass two very different structures to the business world and to try and find a theme common among them. Another problem area included the secondary data used in trying to tie together ownership structure and corporate entrepreneurship.

At the core of the research there was conflict between using quantitative and qualitative methods in that “no clear consensus as to the nature of the influence of block holders on entrepreneurial activities” (Satirenjit, Alistair, & Martin, 2010, p. 54) was found.

References

Hunter, M. G. (2011). Understanding the common causes of small business failures: A qualitative study. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 16(1), 86-103. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1415791117?accountid=35812

Marsh, C. (2013). Business executives’ perceptions of ethical leadership and its development. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(3), 565-582. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1366-7

Satirenjit, J. K., Alistair, B., & Martin, B. (2010). The role of corporate ownership in enhancing corporate entrepreneurship.Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability, 6(2), 43-57. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/857523530?accountid=35812