In Search of the Entremanager

O'Kane, Brian (2010) In Search of the Entremanager. Masters thesis, Waterford Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

Believing that there may be a misperception as to the true nature of the managerial entrepreneur (the ‘entremanager’) and that, as a result, entrepreneurs may be supported in inappropriate ways by enterprise support agencies, financial and academic institutions, policy-makers and business advisers, the current research was conducted to test whether the founders of businesses change from being entrepreneurs into managers as their businesses grow. Successful entrepreneurs require significant management skills to enable them to grow their businesses, which represents a change from the entrepreneurial attributes required to start the business initially. A survey questionnaire, based on key growth development models, was administered in February 2007 to 500-plus entrepreneurs who had completed specific start-up courses in the period 2004 to 2006, with a response rate of just over 20% (105 responses). A second virtually identical questionnaire was administered two years later, to respondents to the first survey, thus providing opportunity for a longitudinal study. There were 31 respondents (56%) to this second survey. When the results of the two surveys were compared, growth clearly had taken place, although whether this resulted in a transition from entrepreneur to manager is less clear-cut. One possible reason is that the extent of growth recorded may not have been sufficient to display the effects posited by the models underlying the survey questionnaire. Although five areas of potential further research were identified as part of this research study, it is believed that the most useful direction for further research is a larger, and longer-term, longitudinal study, replicating and extending the current study.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Entrepreneurship; management
Departments or Groups: *NONE OF THESE*
Divisions: School of Business
Depositing User: Derek Langford
Date Deposited: 14 Jun 2011 16:16
Last Modified: 22 Aug 2016 10:26
URI: https://repository.wit.ie/id/eprint/1646

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