Comparing small business owner and voter beliefs regarding constraints on business growth
Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy
ISSN: 2045-2101
Article publication date: 16 July 2020
Issue publication date: 14 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This research note compares voter opinions regarding small business entrepreneurial activity to opinions of small business owners and links any divergence in perceptions to realized suboptimal entrepreneurial growth policy.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data collection via best–worst scaling and estimation of linear regression models.
Findings
Results suggest that small business owners are less concerned about issues such as foreign competition, estate/death taxes, oil prices and labor union demands but are more concerned with domestic competition, income taxes, regulatory burdens and availability of credit from lenders.
Social implications
The authors find major discrepancies in opinions about trade policy and business financing, which may lead to policy design that hinders entrepreneurship given evidence that politicians do respond to voters' opinions (Autor et al., 2016).
Originality/value
It represents the first empirical assessment of differences between voter and small business owner perspectives on entrepreneurial policy. An immediate policy implication includes the need to provide additional avenues of communication of entrepreneurs' concerns.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding for the study was provided by Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise at Oklahoma State University and the Center for Food and Agricultural Business at Purdue University. The authors would like to thank the Editor and two anonymous referees for useful comments that markedly improved the study. All errors remain the authors’ own.
Citation
Malone, T. and Koumpias, A.M. (2020), "Comparing small business owner and voter beliefs regarding constraints on business growth", Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 329-341. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-03-2020-0012
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited