Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the entrepreneur’s willingness to grow. This study is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between entrepreneur’s familiarity with the key economic development organizations in th...

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Main Author: Angelo Dossou-Yovo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and Science 2015-01-01
Series:Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation
Subjects:
Online Access: http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol11/issue4/JEMI_Vol11_Issue4_2015_Article7.pdf
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author Angelo Dossou-Yovo
author_facet Angelo Dossou-Yovo
author_sort Angelo Dossou-Yovo
collection DOAJ
description The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the entrepreneur’s willingness to grow. This study is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between entrepreneur’s familiarity with the key economic development organizations in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the willingness to grow. Several studies have investigated the growth process in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) since the case has been made that high growth SMEs contribute to economic growth through job creation. To date, these studies have identified multiple internal and external determinants including their effects on small business growth. There is evidence in the literature that characteristics of the entrepreneurs such as the willingness to grow and the entrepreneur’s network are important factors in growth process. However, the relationship between growth process and the entrepreneur’s networking behavior is yet to be fully understood. Drawing from the entrepreneurship ecosystem literature, the growth process literature and the resource dependence theory, this study uses the business confidence survey from 2011 to 2013, which targeted all businesses across all of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia, Canada, to explore the relationship between the entrepreneur willingness to grow and the propensity to network with key economic development organizations of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The findings support the assumption that the proportion of businesses that are willing to grow (i.e. hire additional staff and enter new markets within the next twelve months) is higher for the group of businesses that are familiar with the key economic development organizations than for the group of businesses that are not familiar with them. However, the results are not homogeneous across all populations. Our findings also indicate that the higher the expectation to enter new markets over the next twelve months, the higher the odds to be familiar with the key economic development organizations. Our findings contribute to the literature around the association between networking and small business growth.
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spelling doaj.art-b8083b12180a4fca93c1d2e1c1875d2f2023-11-02T06:25:17ZengCognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and ScienceJournal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation2299-73262015-01-0111416118410.7341/20151147Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian FirmsAngelo Dossou-Yovo0 Dalhousie Rowe School of Business The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the entrepreneur’s willingness to grow. This study is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between entrepreneur’s familiarity with the key economic development organizations in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and the willingness to grow. Several studies have investigated the growth process in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) since the case has been made that high growth SMEs contribute to economic growth through job creation. To date, these studies have identified multiple internal and external determinants including their effects on small business growth. There is evidence in the literature that characteristics of the entrepreneurs such as the willingness to grow and the entrepreneur’s network are important factors in growth process. However, the relationship between growth process and the entrepreneur’s networking behavior is yet to be fully understood. Drawing from the entrepreneurship ecosystem literature, the growth process literature and the resource dependence theory, this study uses the business confidence survey from 2011 to 2013, which targeted all businesses across all of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in Nova Scotia, Canada, to explore the relationship between the entrepreneur willingness to grow and the propensity to network with key economic development organizations of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The findings support the assumption that the proportion of businesses that are willing to grow (i.e. hire additional staff and enter new markets within the next twelve months) is higher for the group of businesses that are familiar with the key economic development organizations than for the group of businesses that are not familiar with them. However, the results are not homogeneous across all populations. Our findings also indicate that the higher the expectation to enter new markets over the next twelve months, the higher the odds to be familiar with the key economic development organizations. Our findings contribute to the literature around the association between networking and small business growth. http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol11/issue4/JEMI_Vol11_Issue4_2015_Article7.pdf growth processsmall businessentrepreneurial ecosystemnetworkingCanada
spellingShingle Angelo Dossou-Yovo
Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation
growth process
small business
entrepreneurial ecosystem
networking
Canada
title Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
title_full Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
title_fullStr Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
title_full_unstemmed Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
title_short Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations and Familiarity with Economic Development Organizations: Evidence from Canadian Firms
title_sort entrepreneurial growth aspirations and familiarity with economic development organizations evidence from canadian firms
topic growth process
small business
entrepreneurial ecosystem
networking
Canada
url http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol11/issue4/JEMI_Vol11_Issue4_2015_Article7.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT angelodossouyovo entrepreneurialgrowthaspirationsandfamiliaritywitheconomicdevelopmentorganizationsevidencefromcanadianfirms