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Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research in French-Speaking Countries
Edited by Alain Fayolle
1 Introduction
In many respects very small enterprises (VSEs) are, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, "an enigma wrapped in a mystery". First, the management system of these firms is poorly understood, notably because it is usually embodied in the physical person of their owner-managers who, as a rule, are generally not inclined to set up formal, documented management systems. As several authors ([90] Weick, 1979; [37] Jennings and Beaver, 1997; [49] Maclaran and McGowan, 1999; [16] Carson and Gilmore, 2000; [39] Julien, 2005) have pointed out, they rather tend to act on the basis of an informal - and often unconscious - reference framework. If the need arises, these actions are then rationalised into formal decisions. VSEs, moreover, have a somewhat perverse tendency to succeed "the wrong way," or "in spite of the rules." Indeed, many VSEs not only survive, but even prosper by systematically breaking the prescriptions of what management theory defines as "Best business practices" ([65] O'Donnell et al. , 2002). This second enigmatic dimension is also linked to the central role of the owner-manager, and to his tendency to run his business through the enactment of a structured, but also informal and undocumented mental framework. The effort to solve these enigmas, however, should not be based on research perspectives that tend to occult our understanding of the competitive and survival strategies of VSEs. Research should rather focus on the main actors behind these competitive strategies, namely, VSE owner-managers.
According to the French Sociologist Raymond Boudon, the explanation of enigmas is one of the main purposes of social sciences. As Boudon argues, however, the explanation of an enigma should not lead to another enigma, let alone to a riddle or a mystery. The onus should rather be on achieving a better understanding of the sound reasons underlying the actor's behaviour; reasons which make sense to him and which he regards as valid. From this perspective, an action may be based on false premises, but may nevertheless remain very rational. False premises, as [12] Boudon (2007) argues, are often grounded in very strong reasons, that is, reasons that are considered valid from the actor's point of view, and which are then rationalised into...