The core competence and attitude of the small business owner-manager: A combination of cognitive, affective and psychomotor competences and attitudes

Authors

Hely Westerholm, Ph.D., DACUM Finland, Helsinki, FinlandFollow

Abstract

Over the coming decade, up to 2015, nearly 80,000 Finnish small and medium-sized individual enterprises possibly with a tradition as a family business will have to find successors for their current owner-managers. The current teaching and learning of entrepreneurship do not deliver enough entrepreneurs. The curriculum at all school levels should be refreshed to meet the challenges that the future entrepreneurs have to face. The study examines the occupational competence and attitudes that small business owner-managers themselves consider essential to their work. They were given an opportunity to express their views in small focus groups of peer small business owner-managers. Consensus opinions formulated by the groups were then meticulously documented. The research approach is qualitative and the empirical data were collected through a Finnish adaptation of the Canadian DACUM model. The results expose the entrepreneurial core of the small business owner-manager. Affective and psychomotor competencies are highlighted alongside the traditionally emphasised cognitive competencies.

Recommended Citation

Westerholm, Ph.D., Hely (2010) "The core competence and attitude of the small business owner-manager: A combination of cognitive, affective and psychomotor competences and attitudes," International Journal for Business Education: Vol. 150: No. 1, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30707/IJBE150.1.1648134104.969461
Available at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/ijbe/vol150/iss1/4