In Search of the 'SME Ordinaire' - Towards a Taxonomy

56th Annual ICSB World Conference, 15-18 June 2011, Stockholm Sweden

24 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2012

See all articles by Sophie Reboud

Sophie Reboud

Université de Bourgogne - Burgundy School of Business

Tim Mazzarol

University of Western Australia

Delwyn Clark

University of Waikato

Date Written: June 16, 2011

Abstract

The majority of businesses within most economies are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Academic and policy interest in SMEs has expanded over the past thirty years with small business research forming an important part of the development of entrepreneurship as a field of inquiry. However, much of the recent focus of small business research has been towards what might be described as a "high church" view, embracing the entrepreneurial SMEs that are high-tech, high growth "Gazelle" or "Born Global" firms, often supported by venture capital financing. This paper focuses on the "low church" view of mainstream SMEs and seeks to develop taxonomy for the classification of what we shall call the "SME Ordinaire". We draw upon the work of Torres and Julien (2005), who recommended the need to denature the small firm and suggested the "small business concept" and its antithesis the anti-small business concept.

Keywords: ordinaire, small firms, taxonomy

Suggested Citation

Reboud, Sophie and Mazzarol, Tim and Clark, Delwyn N, In Search of the 'SME Ordinaire' - Towards a Taxonomy (June 16, 2011). 56th Annual ICSB World Conference, 15-18 June 2011, Stockholm Sweden, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2123981

Sophie Reboud

Université de Bourgogne - Burgundy School of Business ( email )

29 rue Sambin
Dijon, 21006
France

Tim Mazzarol (Contact Author)

University of Western Australia ( email )

35 Stirling Highway
Crawley, Western Australia 6009
Australia
+618 6488-3981 (Phone)
+618 6488-1072 (Fax)

Delwyn N Clark

University of Waikato ( email )

Te Raupapa
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton, Waikato 3240
New Zealand
+64(7)838 4594 (Phone)
+64(7)838 4063 (Fax)

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