Entrepreneurial Characteristics in SMEs: A Rural and Remote Rural Perspective of Lincolnshire Businesses, Part 2

• Date: 01 November 2015
• Author: Kevin Blanchard
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2038
• Published date: 01 November 2015

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Strat. Change 24: 541–551 (2015)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2038

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Change: Briengs in Entrepreneurial Finance

Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2038

Entrepreneurial Characteristics in SMEs: A Rural

and Remote Rural Perspective of Lincolnshire

Businesses, Part 21

Kevin Blanchard

Lincoln Business School, University of Lincoln, UK

Businesses in remote rural locations have sustained greater levels of growth and

have suffered less within the period of the recession.

e term ‘entrepreneur,’ or being entrepreneurial, has changed from the early

debates of the 1970s to now include many dierent connotations and meanings

(Wang and Altinay, 2012). Previously, the term was used to epitomize excellence

in business acumen, performance, and also free thinking; now, it seems to cover

all manner of references, including TV celebrity, where ‘entrepreneurs’ give cash

away in a game show format (Hollows and Jones, 2010). During this long transi-

tion and transformation from a meaningful marker of excellence to a less than

informative indicator of mediocrity, the term underwent a form of metamorphiza-

tion. During this transition, it seems to have acquired a form of elasticity, and is

now used to describe an extraordinary and well‐performing business owner; a

non‐descript person who has achieved very little and in so doing, it transports

them to a higher status within people’s perception, through media misinformation

(Hollows and Jones, 2010).

is article is a follow‐up to Blanchard (2013) in this journal, building upon

previous research carried out by the author over a 10‐year period (Blanchard,

2010). e aim is to examine if entrepreneurial businesses have survived over this

period better than others. Some key entrepreneurial areas will be discussed as they

are important to show how both rural and remote rural small and medium enter-

prises (SMEs) use these characteristics to their advantage. is will be shown

within the analysis.

Entrepreneurial antecedence

It is with the intervention of the media status that the term becomes divorced and

devoid of its origins as the mediator/facilitator of goods or services (Cantillon,

1931). It also loses any connection with and relationship to superior performance

1 JEL classication codes: E44, F21, F32, F43, O16.

Businesses located within remote

areas have better‐developed skills

and characteristics, which may be

termed entrepreneurial in nature.

Rural businesses have a better

understanding of their customer

needs and requirements.

SMEs do not see themselves as

different in any way from other

businesses.