Entrepreneurs' business skills and growth orientation in business development

Abstract

This article explores how the business skills that small and medium-sized entrepreneur possesses and value affect growth orientation in the context of business development. It focuses on the topic through a theoretical framework an entrepreneur and growth orientation. These two elements are key factors in growing and developing business and in strategic entrepreneurship (SE). SE balances two separate elements related to business development: advantage-seeking (AS) actions and opportunity-seeking (OS) actions. The findings of our exploratory quantitative study show that only the skills that entrepreneurs' value affect their growth orientation: the more entrepreneurs value a certain business skill or skills, the more significant they see their self-reported growth orientation to be. The findings further indicate the balance as strategic-oriented.