IMPLICATIONS OF THE SME OWNER-MANAGER'S BUSINESS VENTURING MODE: COMPARING FOUNDERS, ACQUIRERS AND SUCCESSORS

The entrepreneurship literature teaches us that the aspirations and competence of SME owner-managers as well as their strategic management behaviour can influence both the development and performance of their firm. However the research issues that surround the owner-manager's business venturing mode, that is, whether he or she has created a new firm, acquired an already existing firm, or acceded to a family firm's leadership and ownership by succession and/or inheritance, have rarely been addressed in an integrated manner. Now, founders, acquirers and successors may have fundamentally different strategic profiles, that is, in terms of the strategic capabilities they aim to develop and the type of performance they seek for their firm. In aiming to identify individual correlates and organizational effects of the entrepreneur's business venturing mode, an empirical study of 357 Canadian and French SMEs was thus undertaken. The results reveal significant differences between the three groups of owner-managers, that is, between the 196 founders, 96 acquirers and 65 successors with regard to their competence and motivations and with regard to the strategic capabilities and business performance of their firm. The results also reveal the owner-manager's business venturing mode to be a significant predictor of the firm's market and HR capabilities as well as its growth, productivity and profitability.