An Entrepreneurship Perspective on the Formation and Growth of Business Groups in the Small Business Sector

ii Preface and acknowledgments v List of figures xii List of tables xiv Acronyms and definitions used in the text xvii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Subject of the thesis 1 1.2 Background and justification for the research 2 1.3 Business groups in entrepreneurship research 5 1.4 Aims and objectives 7 1.5 Research design and methodology 8 1.6 Scope and context of the study 10 1.7 Structure of the thesis 13 Chapter 2 Business groups: Facts and interpretations 17 2.1 Concepts and definitions 18 2.1.1 Ownership and control 18 2.1.2 Groups, networks and clusters 21 2.2 The presence and relevance of business groups in industrialized countries 26 2.3 Economic and management theories about business groups 32 2.3.1 The group as an efficient organizational form 34