The Development and Survival of New Small Businesses: Empirical Evidence for Scotland 1994-97 by

This paper has two goals. First, to provide an accurate characterisation of the new small firm in Scotland by reference to markets, finance, costs, business strategy, human capital, internal organisation and technical change. Second, to use these same features to discover salient differences between small firms which either survive or close, two or three years after inception. The empirical evidence is based on interview data from 150 entrepreneurs over a three year period. It was found that surviving firms were larger, better funded, lower geared, and more profit oriented. They also paid higher wages, and were both more attuned to, and realistic about, new technologies. The conclusion formed was that firms which survived generally displayed wider and deeper competencies than firms which closed. JEL Classifications: C81, D21, D92, L22, M21, R12