Browsing by Author "Harris, Michael Lee"

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    The Types of Problems Encountered by Small Business Owners that Receive Counseling from Small Business Centers and the Relationship Between these Problems and Selected Business Characteristics: A Regional Analysis
    (2004-05-12) Harris, Michael Lee; Ronald Shearon, Committee Member; George Vaughan, Committee Co-Chair; Tony O'Driscoll, Committee Co-Chair; Virginia Lee, Committee Member
    The purpose of this study was to determine the types of problems encountered by small business owners that receive counseling from Small Business Centers in the eastern region of North Carolina and the relationship between these problems and selected business characteristics. The three independent variables were industry sector (retail or service), business development status (startup or operating), and owner's gender (male or female). The type of problems encountered by small business owners was the dependent variable. Based on prior research by Ansoff (1965) and Chrisman and Leslie (1989), the classification system used to categorize business problems included administrative, operating, and strategic problems. The study was based on a survey research design and Pearson's chi-square and lambda tests were used to indicate significance between variables and strength of association. The data were taken from the administrative records of eight Small Business Centers in eastern North Carolina and featured a random sample of 300 small businesses. The findings of the study indicated that the majority of small business owners in the retail and service sectors in eastern North Carolina rely on counseling from Small Business Centers to help them resolve issues that are core to the development of a successful enterprise. The most common type of problems facing these business owners was strategic in nature (54%). The second most common type of problems experienced by these business owners was administrative (33.3%), followed by operating problems (12.7%). The only exception was with firms classified as operating. Administrative problems were more common in operating firms, regardless of industry sector or gender. In all other combinations of independent variables (retail, service, startup, female-owned, and male-owned), strategic problems were more prevalent. The types of problems encountered by small business owners in this study varied according to the developmental stage of their business, regardless of industry sector or gender. The results of the Pearson's chi-square and lambda tests supported this conclusion. The only independent variable found to have a significant (p<.001) relationship with the type of problems experienced by small businesses included in the study was business development status. Lambda indicated that the strength of the association between the type of problems and business development status was worth noting. While industry sector and owner's gender by themselves did not show a significant relationship with the type of problems, there was some evidence of significance when the variables were combined, and the significance level was changed to .10. A significant relationship (p<.10) existed between the type of problems and the industry sector and gender of clients that received counseling from Small Business Centers in eastern North Carolina, when controlling for male-owned firms (p<.064) and service firms (p<.053). There was also some evidence of significance between the type of problems and industry sector, business development status, and gender, when controlling for male-owned startup firms (p<.064) and startup retail firms (p<.078). However, lambda showed no strength in these associations.