ResearchUNC Charlotte

Charlotte Belk College Of Business Co-Authors Garner Top Honor From JSBM

A UNC Charlotte small business study was chosen one of the 10 most impactful research papers published in the international Journal of Small Business Management last year. The study offers actionable recommendations and is essential reading for entrepreneurs, policymakers and scholars, say the journal’s editors.

The research offers a new take on why some small businesses fail, suggesting that failures can relate to the owners’ resilience and strategic choices, not just the business models they follow.

Co-authors of the study are all affiliated with the Belk College of Business. They are:

The team’s research examines how a small business’s entrepreneurial orientation — known as EO and comprising innovativeness, proactivity and risk-taking — influences the resilience of a firm’s owner. The study also considers how this relationship is shaped by the company’s exploration of new opportunities and exploitation of existing ones, characteristics known as ambidexterity.

Understanding how these orientations interact is critical for small businesses, because “the individual resilience of small business owners is of particular relevance to the survival of a firm,” the paper’s authors say. This is even more important during significant times of stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when owners’ resilience was a major factor in business survival.

In the context of small businesses, resilience is the owner’s ability to handle adversity, adapt to unforeseen events and stay committed to business goals, even when facing challenges.

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