Entrepreneurship Research, And Business Growth

The rapid growth of the enterprise is not only a common aim most enterprises pursue, but also an important source of social wealth growth. As to the critical factors determining the growth, every school has its own interpretation. However, more and more scholars tend to shift their research emphasis on the entrepreneur, arguing that the growth of an enterprise depends on the personal ability of the entrepreneur. Basing on the previous researches, the paper attempts to explain the inner mechanism of the entrepreneur influencing the enterprise growth, mainly from the perspective of evolution and enterprise competence theory.The ability of the entrepreneur is an external manifestation of his mental model, which is not only the basis and leading factor the enterprise habitus forms, but also determines directly the direction and dimension of the enterprise habitus mutation. The reasoning goes like this: the mental model of the entrepreneur forms the dominant logic through the share of the knowledge among the high level team, which is the extension of the entrepreneur's thinking mode, and also the creation of a managing concept. Being the control program, the enterprise dominant logic also direct and restrict the formation of the enterprise habitus.There are chiefly two modes forming the enterprise habitus mutation, which is "search" and "innovation". The former is to find and integrate the appropriate and matching ones from the known technologies and habitus to form its own habitus. And innovation is to research and explore the technologies and habitus which not exist before. But no matter "search" or "innovation", the critical factor and its actual executive of the two mutation modes is the entrepreneur. In other words, the personal ability of the entrepreneur determines directly the direction and range of the enterprise habitus mutation. The process of enterprise habitus mutation is, in effect, the entrepreneur "search" in Kirzner's interpretation and the entrepreneur innovation in Joseph Schumpeter's understanding.The existence of enterprise habitus reduces the decision and negotiation cost, decreases the internal frictions, and set the basis for enterprise innovation. Therefore, in essence, the enterprise habitus is the key capacity of an enterprise. Transforming his own mental model into enterprise habitus, and his personal ability into the key capacity of the enterprise, the entrepreneur makes it to be an inner foundation for enterprise growth. The enterprise habitus is an important source of its competitive edges, because it reflects a kind of ability basing on team and experience, which is neither tradable nor imitable.The enterprise habitus can make the enterprise become heterodox and bring it competitive edge. But in a changing, uncertain and unstable market, every advantage cannot last long. The losing of the competitive edge is mainly because, firstly, the core rigidity brought by the overdependence on habitus, and secondly, the changing external environment. In order to maintain its competitive edge,it often adopt two ways, include building an isolation mechanism and carrying out an innovative strategy, which represent the concept of resource basis and Joseph Schumpeter's innovation concept respectively. These two kinds of mode are intimately connected with the entrepreneur's personal ability. For example, the former is constructed directly on the basis of the entrepreneur's ability; the latter is the basic function of the entrepreneur, and also the chief manifestation of his ability. In addition, as to keep its competitive edge, the enterprise's innovation gradually becomes a kind of habitus, or even a common component of the enterprise activities, which previously is an occasional happening. During this process, it is just the extension of the entrepreneur's ability within the enterprise. Consequently, the enterprise competitive edge is the basis for its growth, which reciprocally is the external representation of the enterprise competitive edge. And the enterprise competitive edge or its growth is realized by the push of the entrepreneur, which is closely related to his ability.Basing on the theoretical analysis and using a great amount of literatures and interviews, the papers designs a model of the relation between the entrepreneur's ability and the enterprise growth, and further propose a basic hypothesis: the ability of the entrepreneur is in direct ratio to enterprise growth. The research attempts to measure the ability of the entrepreneur from six angles, namely, the ability to find chances, the ability to integrate capitals, the ability to allot resources, the ability to undertake risks and uncertainties, the ability to innovate and the ability to learn.There are 11 hypotheses in the research, most of which have already been proved, including the entrepreneur's ability to integrate capitals, to undertake risks and uncertainties, to innovate and to learn are all in direct ratio to the enterprise growth respectively; the entrepreneur's ability to learn is in direct ratio to his ability to find chances, to integrate capitals, to allot resources, and to innovate. Some of the hypotheses are supported by empirical demonstration. For instance, the entrepreneur's ability to find chances, to allot resources is in direct ratio to the enterprise growth. Only the hypothesis that the entrepreneur's ability to learn is in direct ratio to his ability to undertake risks and uncertainties is waiting for further testifying.The empirical demonstration proves all the viewpoints proposed in the theoretical section, showing that the entrepreneur's ability is strikingly in direct ratio to the enterprise growth, that his ability is crucial to the enterprise growth. At the meantime, it shows that the entrepreneur's ability to learn is vital to other abilities of him, such as, the ability to find chances, to integrate capitals, to allot resources, and to innovate. Therefore, the entrepreneur's ability to learn, in effect, exerts a double influence on the enterprise growth. One is promoting its growth directly; the other is strengthening other abilities, which influence its growth indirectly.