{"id":{"repo_id":"cent-lancashire","oai_identifier":"oai:clok.uclan.ac.uk:20627"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cent-lancashire/oai:clok.uclan.ac.uk:20627","repository":{"repo_id":"cent-lancashire","name":"University of Central Lancashire","base_url":"https://clok.uclan.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"Decision-making in the micro-business","abstract":"Despite their importance to the UK economy micro-businesses have been neglected by academic researchers. This thesis contributes to our knowledge of such businesses by focusing on decision-making in the micro-business. The research involved 55 semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of micro-businesses in three contrasting sectors: accounting, building and printing. The study found that micro-businesses play an important role in the economy and in particular may provide a more substantial contribution to employment than previous studies have indicated. In addition, the quasi-organisational form by which many micro-businesses operate means that such firms are often more sophisticated than implied by statistical data. An important influence on the decision-making process was found to be the effect of the owner-manager's individual, social and economic contexts. This contextual model provides the rationale for the way micro-business owner-managers make decisions. An important aspect of this model is that the interaction ofihe differing individual, social and economic contexts means that owner-managers experience unique influences and therefore develop specific ways of making decisions. A number of generalisations could nevertheless be advanced. Micro-business owner-managers tend to base their decisions on more intuitive methods combined with the mformal absorption of mformation. They also. often adopt nsk-mmmusmg decision strategies and employ satisflcing behaviour. Such appibaches could be criticised from a rational decision-making perspective. However, given the context of micro-business decision-making, such approaches can be regarded as perfectly rational. The conclusion arising from this research is that training and advice should focus upon enhancing the way micro-business owner-managers currently make decisions, rather than attempting to persuade them to adopt more comprehensive and so-called 'rational approaches'. Greater account also needs to be taken of the context within which decisions are made, particularly the objectives of owner-managers. This provides an important challenge to the existing paradigm that is based upon a perception that owner-managers should pursue objectives such as business growth and adopt more rational decision-making methods if they are to achieve this.","abstract_html":"Despite their importance to the UK economy micro-businesses have been neglected by academic researchers. This thesis contributes to our knowledge of such businesses by focusing on decision-making in the micro-business. The research involved 55 semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of micro-businesses in three contrasting sectors: accounting, building and printing. The study found that micro-businesses play an important role in the economy and in particular may provide a more substantial contribution to employment than previous studies have indicated. In addition, the quasi-organisational form by which many micro-businesses operate means that such firms are often more sophisticated than implied by statistical data. An important influence on the decision-making process was found to be the effect of the owner-manager's individual, social and economic contexts. This contextual model provides the rationale for the way micro-business owner-managers make decisions. An important aspect of this model is that the interaction ofihe differing individual, social and economic contexts means that owner-managers experience unique influences and therefore develop specific ways of making decisions. A number of generalisations could nevertheless be advanced. Micro-business owner-managers tend to base their decisions on more intuitive methods combined with the mformal absorption of mformation. They also. often adopt nsk-mmmusmg decision strategies and employ satisflcing behaviour. Such appibaches could be criticised from a rational decision-making perspective. However, given the context of micro-business decision-making, such approaches can be regarded as perfectly rational. The conclusion arising from this research is that training and advice should focus upon enhancing the way micro-business owner-managers currently make decisions, rather than attempting to persuade them to adopt more comprehensive and so-called 'rational approaches'. Greater account also needs to be taken of the context within which decisions are made, particularly the objectives of owner-managers. This provides an important challenge to the existing paradigm that is based upon a perception that owner-managers should pursue objectives such as business growth and adopt more rational decision-making methods if they are to achieve this.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Greenbank, Paul Michael"],"institution":"University of Central Lancashire","degree_name":"mphil","degree_level":"masters","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2000,"date_issued":"2000-07","date_published":"2000-07","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:36:13Z","subjects":["N190 - Business studies not elsewhere classified"],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Greenbank, Paul Michael"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2000-07-01"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2000-07"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Central Lancashire"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://knowledge.lancashire.ac.uk/id/eprint/20627/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["masters"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["mphil"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["N190 - Business studies not elsewhere classified"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://knowledge.lancashire.ac.uk/id/eprint/20627/1/20627%20Paul%20Michael%20Greenbank%20July00%20decision-making%20in%20the%20micro-business%20Degree%20of%20Master%20of%20Philosophy%20unpublished%20July00%20University%20of%20Central%20Lancashire%20unknown%20379.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Despite their importance to the UK economy micro-businesses have been neglected by academic researchers. This thesis contributes to our knowledge of such businesses by focusing on decision-making in the micro-business. The research involved 55 semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of micro-businesses in three contrasting sectors: accounting, building and printing. The study found that micro-businesses play an important role in the economy and in particular may provide a more substantial contribution to employment than previous studies have indicated. In addition, the quasi-organisational form by which many micro-businesses operate means that such firms are often more sophisticated than implied by statistical data. An important influence on the decision-making process was found to be the effect of the owner-manager's individual, social and economic contexts. This contextual model provides the rationale for the way micro-business owner-managers make decisions. An important aspect of this model is that the interaction ofihe differing individual, social and economic contexts means that owner-managers experience unique influences and therefore develop specific ways of making decisions. A number of generalisations could nevertheless be advanced. Micro-business owner-managers tend to base their decisions on more intuitive methods combined with the mformal absorption of mformation. They also. often adopt nsk-mmmusmg decision strategies and employ satisflcing behaviour. Such appibaches could be criticised from a rational decision-making perspective. However, given the context of micro-business decision-making, such approaches can be regarded as perfectly rational. The conclusion arising from this research is that training and advice should focus upon enhancing the way micro-business owner-managers currently make decisions, rather than attempting to persuade them to adopt more comprehensive and so-called 'rational approaches'. Greater account also needs to be taken of the context within which decisions are made, particularly the objectives of owner-managers. This provides an important challenge to the existing paradigm that is based upon a perception that owner-managers should pursue objectives such as business growth and adopt more rational decision-making methods if they are to achieve this."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Decision-making in the micro-business"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Greenbank, Paul Michael"],"dc:date":["2000-07-01"],"dc:date.issued":["2000-07"],"dc:description.abstract":["Despite their importance to the UK economy micro-businesses have been neglected by academic researchers. This thesis contributes to our knowledge of such businesses by focusing on decision-making in the micro-business. The research involved 55 semi-structured interviews with the owner-managers of micro-businesses in three contrasting sectors: accounting, building and printing. The study found that micro-businesses play an important role in the economy and in particular may provide a more substantial contribution to employment than previous studies have indicated. In addition, the quasi-organisational form by which many micro-businesses operate means that such firms are often more sophisticated than implied by statistical data. An important influence on the decision-making process was found to be the effect of the owner-manager's individual, social and economic contexts. This contextual model provides the rationale for the way micro-business owner-managers make decisions. An important aspect of this model is that the interaction ofihe differing individual, social and economic contexts means that owner-managers experience unique influences and therefore develop specific ways of making decisions. A number of generalisations could nevertheless be advanced. Micro-business owner-managers tend to base their decisions on more intuitive methods combined with the mformal absorption of mformation. They also. often adopt nsk-mmmusmg decision strategies and employ satisflcing behaviour. Such appibaches could be criticised from a rational decision-making perspective. However, given the context of micro-business decision-making, such approaches can be regarded as perfectly rational. The conclusion arising from this research is that training and advice should focus upon enhancing the way micro-business owner-managers currently make decisions, rather than attempting to persuade them to adopt more comprehensive and so-called 'rational approaches'. Greater account also needs to be taken of the context within which decisions are made, particularly the objectives of owner-managers. This provides an important challenge to the existing paradigm that is based upon a perception that owner-managers should pursue objectives such as business growth and adopt more rational decision-making methods if they are to achieve this."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://knowledge.lancashire.ac.uk/id/eprint/20627/1/20627%20Paul%20Michael%20Greenbank%20July00%20decision-making%20in%20the%20micro-business%20Degree%20of%20Master%20of%20Philosophy%20unpublished%20July00%20University%20of%20Central%20Lancashire%20unknown%20379.pdf"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Central Lancashire"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["https://knowledge.lancashire.ac.uk/id/eprint/20627/"],"dc:subject":["N190 - Business studies not elsewhere classified"],"dc:title":["Decision-making in the micro-business"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["masters"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["mphil"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:36:13Z"}