ABSTRACT
This chapter concludes the final section of the book, on political economy, by investigating what entrepreneurs think of enterprise. Earlier chapters have shown how, since 1985, in association with numerous others, I have been analysing small business enterprise in Scotland. There, my concern was narrowly scientific. For example, in chapter 9 I examined how factors like the gearing ratio and the market share of small firms influenced their probability of survival over three years. Here, my concern is less formal. This chapter is based on data gathered about perceptions of small firm ownermanagers of ‘the enterprise culture’ using the RIQ 1988.1 Perceptions are regarded as a valid form of evidence in that they affect motivation and judgement, and therefore have a bearing on practical decisions taken both by entrepreneurs and by policy makers. However, they are clearly a relatively fragile form of evidence, and must be handled carefully, without drawing stronger conclusions than any evidence on perceptions could warrant. Thus I eschew statistical inference below, and use one simple device for broad categorization: the distinction between observing and participating in enterprise.
