Comparing small business owner and voter beliefs regarding constraints on business growth

Purpose: This research note compares voter opinions regarding small business entrepreneurial activity to opinions of small business owners and links any divergence in perceptions to realized suboptimal entrepreneurial growth policy. Design/methodology/approach: Primary data collection via best–worst scaling and estimation of linear regression models. Findings: Results suggest that small business owners are less concerned about issues such as foreign competition, estate/death taxes, oil prices and labor union demands but are more concerned with domestic competition, income taxes, regulatory burdens and availability of credit from lenders. Social implications: The authors find major discrepancies in opinions about trade policy and business financing, which may lead to policy design that hinders entrepreneurship given evidence that politicians do respond to voters' opinions (Autor et al., 2016). Originality/value: It represents the first empirical assessment of differences between voter and small business owner perspectives on entrepreneurial policy. An immediate policy implication includes the need to provide additional avenues of communication of entrepreneurs' concerns.