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Small Business Entrepreneurs and Performance: Evidence from Management Buy-ins

1994; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 12; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0266242694124002

1741-2870

Christine Ennew, Ken Robbie, Mike Wright, Steve Thompson,

Corporate Finance and Governance

DR. CHRISTINE ENNEW IS READER IN marketing, Ken Robbie is research fellow, and Professor Mike Wright is director of the Centre for Management Buy-out Research, all at the University of Nottingham, England, and Dr. Steve Thompson is senior lecturer in business economics at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England. Management buy-ins represent a new form of small firm, where individual entrepreneurs with institutional backing acquire an existing company. This paper examines the characteristics of entrepreneurs in a representative sample of 59 management buy-ins. The average size of the buy-ins is 147 employees, with a median of 63 employees. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and cluster analysis are used to examine types of buy-in entrepreneurs and the relationship between types and performance. Three clusters of buy-in entrepreneurs are identified -'push' (the smallest group and involving smallest firms), 'independence-draftsmen' and 'opportunist' (the largest group and the largest firms). No significant differences in performance were identified between the clusters although 'opportunists' were more likely to undertake post buy-in acquisitions.