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International Small Business Journal
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Specificity and Denaturing of Small Business

Olivier Torrès

Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III, EM. Lyon, France, Oliviertorres{at}free.fr

Pierre-André Julien

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada, Pierre-Andre_Julien{at}uqtr.ca

This article is based on a long consideration of the concept of small business after 30 years of conceptual development. Most, if not all, researchers in small business have accepted the idea that small business is specific (the preponderant role of the owner-manager, low level of functional breakdown, intuitive strategy, etc.). However, the somewhat excessive assertion of this idea may suggest that all small firms adopt a specific management method, with the result that management specificity becomes a universal principle. If we allow that small business management can be specific, we must also allow the corollary of this statement, namely the possibility of denaturing (loss of specificity). In other words, a small-sized firm does not necessarily have to adhere to the classical management method. The authors of this article advocate a contingency approach to small business managerial specificity that would allow for the definition of a validity framework for the thesis of small business managerial specificity.

Key Words: classical theory • denaturing • management method • paradigm • small business • specificity • validity

International Small Business Journal, Vol. 23, No. 4, 355-377 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0266242605054049
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