The Use of Formal Business Planning by Nonprofit Entrepreneurs in the Development of the New Nonprofit Venture

To complement the previous attempts to define the elusive concept of entrepreneurship, this study examines the impact of firm origin on small business owners/entrepreneurs and the characteristics of their firms. A review of previous typologies is presented along with a categorization of the groups of business owners/entrepreneurs from those typologies into three basic groupings: 1) Creators, motivated by the vision of creating a new product or service; 2) Inheritors, whose path to business ownership was paved by a family member; and 3) Operators, who are motivated by the financial aspects of business operation. Distinctions among these groups are explored on a sample of 231 business owners. The existence of certain aspects of the three groups is established by differences in goals, attitudes, knowledge, and demographic characteristics. Policy implications and future research agenda are also discussed.