The Incident Method - an Alternative Way of Studying Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Abstract

Introduction With reference to the existing literature, it is always difficult, though not impossible, to make a clear distinction between entrepreneurial firms and small business ventures. Carland, Hoy, Boulton & Carland, for example, tried to use the logic of Schumpeter (1934), Glueck (1980) and Vesper (1980) to conceptually distinguish the two groups in terms of the principal characteristics: innovative behaviour and strategic management practices (Carland, et al 1984). And, based on the same definition, they examined the characteristics of 77 small business owners and found that the two groups, i.e. entrepreneurs and small business owners, as identified by a panel of experts, were statistically distinct in innovative behaviour as well as cognitive styles (Carland, et al 1988). In another study, Begley & Boyd suggested to use founders to represent entrepreneurs as distinguished from non-founders, who are the chief executive officers of the small business firms, because they found the two groups are different in their personal and firm characteristics (Begley & Boyd 1987). In fact, the way that we define the two groups of people differently are attributed to the different approaches we use in examining the characteristics of entrepreneurs. In other words, small business owner/managers might also be entrepreneurial if they display all the characteristics of a typical entrepreneur. Similarly, organizational managers might be regarded as entrepreneurial if the same set of characteristics are found. One example of such definition could be referred to Pinchot's concept of intrepreneur--those who take hands-on responsibility for of any kind within an organization (Pinchot 1985). Pinchot did express explicitly that creating innovation is the main characteristics of entrepreneur and the only difference between intrapreneur and entrepreneur in general is whether this specific individual is within or outside the organization. In general, all past research studies seem to suggest that in order to identify entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs we should examine the characteristics of an individual to see whether they are consistent with the common set of characteristics as revealed and confirmed by various research findings in the study of entrepreneurs. However, a review of literature does not provide us a clear and conclusive remarks on what those common characteristics are. At least, there are three most common theoretical and methodological approaches used in researching the characteristics of entrepreneurs. Firstly, the trait approach, building on the earlier psychological work on entrepreneurs by McClelland and his associates, focuses on personal disposition of individuals and the personality theory underlying individual behaviour, which could then be identified as entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial (McClelland 1961). Secondly, the demographic approach attempts to use demographic information to arrive at the profile of a typical entrepreneur so that comparison could be made with reference to individual's personal characteristics such as birth order, role models, age, education level, work habits, etc. Examples of this approach can be found from Hisrich (1986), Brockhaus (1982). Thirdly, Robinson, et al review critically both approaches and suggest the attitude theory as an alternative to the study of entrepreneurship (Robinson, et al 1991). They argue conceptually and theoretically that attitude is a better approach to the study of entrepreneurship than either personality or demographics, because of its closeness to behaviour-specific, rather than characteristic-specific, They then develop Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) Scale and test the predictive value with owners of new businesses and white collar non-management personnel and confirm its reliability to be within acceptable standards. Attitude approach is of no doubt more close to represent the behaviour of entrepreneurs and therefore a better alternative to predicting entrepreneurship. …