The personal values and business success of small, independent retailers : an empirical study

Abstract

The author asked 109 owner-operators of 127 small, independent retail establishments to complete an England Personal Values Questionnaire, an Abridged Version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator on Jungian preferences, and an interview with the author. In 1977, these men had mean (and median) sales volume of $689,100 (and $250,000); mean (median) number of full-time employees of about nine (four); and mean (median) personal income from their retail businesses of $27,400 ($22,500). As hypothesized, the author found a larger percentage of moralists, and a smaller percentage of pragmatists, than were in England's sample of American corporate managers. The 103 subjects completing a usable PVQ included 46 moralists, 41 pragmatists, seven aesthetics, and nine men with mixed value-systems. Moralists rated 17 values higher than pragmatists (including many "human relations virtues", my subordinates, and employee welfare), whereas pragmatists were higher on 12 values (possibly projecting greater competence- or task-orientation). Moralists averaged over twice as much in annual sales, and $10,000 more in annual personal income from the business--though pragmatists reported higher self-ratings of their own performance as boss. As hypothesized, this sample differed from England's on many value-ratings. Making higher ratings generally on the non-ipsative PVQ, the retailers exceeded the corporate managers on 21 values, and were lower in only two (ability and creativity). But a comparison of ranking-differences showed the retailers to be higher by at least 10 ranks on as many values as they were lower on by at least 10 ranks (that is, 14 values). Differences found tended to support England's expectations about small-firm managers, and some additional differences were found. ...