African Journal of
Business Management

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Bus. Manage.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1993-8233
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJBM
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 4193

Full Length Research Paper

Individual entrepreneurship capacity and small and medium enterprises (SME) performance: A human and organizational capital approach

João Leitão1 and Mário Franco2*
1University of Beira Interior, Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, IN+, Laboratory of Technology Policy and Management of Technology, Technical University of Lisbon, IST, Portugal. 2Department of Management and Economics, University of Beira Interior, NECE - Research Unit on Business Science, Portugal.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 10 February 2011
  •  Published: 04 August 2011

Abstract

This paper adds to the eclectic framework of entrepreneurship, through the evaluation of the impact of human capital and organizational capital determined by the entrepreneur on SME performance. The use of the stepwise method provides the selection of significant variables that have an impact on small and medium enterprises (SME) performance. When non-economic performance is considered, regarding human capital, the study finds out that the only significant variable is enthusiasm at work. In relation to organizational capital, the significant variables are: efficient organizational structure, participative management and incentives for interdisciplinary discussion and dialogue. In turn, when the economic performance is analyzed, the study reveals that the unique significant human capital determinant is the entrepreneur’s intuition and the only organizational capital that the study detects is related to the building of an efficient organizational structure.

 

Key words: Individual entrepreneurship capacity, human capital, organizational capital, performance.