Determinants of Organisational Structure of Small Business Enterprises: Evidence in a Rapidly Developing Country

Abstract

HYONG YI is a doctoral candidate in management science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Seoul, Korea, and Linsu Kim is Professor of Management, College of Business Administration, Korea University, Seoul. This paper examines both contextual and managers' personal variables in identifying the determinants of structure in small business organisations in a rapidly developing country - Korea. The results support hypotheses derived deductively from literature in advanced countries that a manager's personal variables are stronger predictors of centralisation and formalisation than contextual variables and that contextual variables are stronger predictors of specialisation that a manager's personal variables. The paper discusses the implications of the findings and concludes that the determinants of structure appear to be significantly different between small and large organisations and that hypotheses deductively derived from literature in advanced countries are supported in a rapidly developing country.