By: Rogerio Domenge and Imanol Belausteguigoitia
It is widely known that in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, small and mid-sized businesses play a significant role in economic activity (Kantis & Ishida, 2002) and social dynamics. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, 2007), in Mexico 95.5 percent of manufacturing, retailing and service organizations are micro-sized businesses, while 3.5 and 0.8 percent are small and mid-sized companies, respectively. These employ 30.8 percent of all the workers in the country. Just 0.2 percent of the companies are large firms. At the same time, it is estimated that nine out of every ten organizations in Mexico are family owned, and only one in three of them is passed down to the next generation (Belausteguigoitia, 2004).
Entrepreneurial Spirit in Organizations
The Entrepreneurship topic has experienced a significant development during the last four decades. This orientation started with the creation of new enterprises and as of the nineties it has extended and included existing organizations. Research on this topic is abundant and it has answered questions on the entrepreneurial process. One of the findings is the transcendental motivation for the businessmen when starting a business, namely the wish of independence. This variable is related to others such as commitment and effort (Belausteguigoitia y Portillo, 2003). When you become an entrepreneur you wish to improve revenues, provide for the family, etcetera, but the basic idea is to build a future related to your own initiative without having to continue to be united to the organization that generates the job. Now, those organizations that allow the development of the entrepreneurial spirit of their collaborators and offer more autonomy will have greater possibilities of withholding that talent and applying it to appropriately transform the company.
(read more…)