An Exploration of Owner-Manager Problem Solving Practices in Small Firms: The Central Vancouver Island Experience

A significant amount of research in the field of small business management has
\ncorrelated small firm performance with the sophistication of overall management
\nskills (see, for example, Gasse, 1997; Gadenne, 1998; Zinger, leBrasseur and
\nZannibi, 2001; Balderson, 2003) and more particularly problem solving skills. Yet,
\neven though problem solving skills are at the core of the small business management
\nprocess (Jennings and Beaver, 1997), there has been little research to date that has
\nfocused on understanding the actual approach small business owner-managers take to solve the problems they encounter as the present study has done, through the
\nutilization of an interpretive research design applied to a sample of small firms.
\nThe primary purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the nature of problem solving practices adopted by 11 small business owner-managers on Central
\nVancouver Island, Canada, by identifying the types of problems encountered in the
\nyears following their establishment, the actions taken to solve these problems and the outcomes of these actions for the firm. It examines the characteristics of the problemm solving approaches utilized by owner-managers as they encountered problems, and identifies how they perceived the impact of the approach taken on the continued survival of their firm.
\nThe methodological approach taken in this study is positioned within an emergent
\nbody of research in the field of small business and entrepreneurship that applies an interpretive paradigm to uncover the complex facets of how individuals develop their capabilities and management practices (Chell and Allman, 2003) with a particular
\nemphasis on the small business owner-manager. The interpretive assumptions guiding the research process have allowed new understandings to emerge about
\nproblem solving in small firms within the wider context of managerial capability as a
\ncritical contributor to small business survival.
\nMore specifically, the critical incident technique method (Flanagan, 1954; Chell,
\n1998), along with an approach to data analysis and coding that draws from grounded
\ntheory (Glaser, 1992; Glaser and Strauss, 1999; Strauss and Corbin, 1998), are
\ncombined and applied as a qualitative research strategy. This strategy has not
\npreviously been used in relation to the study of problem solving in small firms. This interpretive paradigm allows the exploration of how small business owner-managers attach meaning to their subjective experiences and the implications of these
\nperceptions for the business outcomes of the firm, specifically as they relate to
\nsolving critical business problems. As a result, the interpretive methods applied in
\nthe course of this study make a novel contribution to the field, since they have
\nyielded new interpretations on the nature of problem solving processes in the sample
\nof small firms studied.
\nThe findings presented here reveal the intuitive, improvised and non-linear nature of how problems are actually solved in these small firms, in contrast to a number of well-known theoretical research frameworks that propose well-defined and
\ndelineated steps in the problem solving process. The results of this study make a
\nvaluable contribution to building new theory in this area of inquiry by demonstrating how more dynamic processes occur in practice. An alternative way to conceptualize problem solving in small firms is presented in Chapter 6, A Holistic Framework for Problem Solving in Small Firms.

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