We replicate the Wiklund et al. (2003) study examining the attitudes towards growth of small business managers. We generalize and extend that study in three important ways: we focus on a different context (United States instead of Sweden), where the conditions and consequences for growth are different, we provide an additional predictor variable – behavioral control – in line with Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, and with a slightly modified dependent variable. The principal finding is that the strongest perceived consequence affecting attitudes towards growth among U.S.-based small business managers is the ability to increase income and other financial benefits. Change in employee well-being and change in dependence on outside stakeholders also ranked relatively high among eight potential growth consequences. The Wiklund et al. (2003) Swedish study finds, in contrast, that non-economic consequences are the strongest predictor of attitudes towards growth. We attribute these attitudinal differences to variations in institutional context, suggesting that policy and cultural norms are likely to underlie growth motivation. We also find that U.S.-based small business managers are likely to be influenced by the perception that growth is a “realistic” endeavor.

我们复制了Wiklund等。（2003年）研究了对小企业经理人成长的态度。我们以三种重要的方式对研究进行了概括和扩展：我们关注于不同的背景（美国而不是瑞典），在这种情况下增长的条件和后果是不同的，我们根据阿杰森的理论提供了额外的预测变量–行为控制。计划行为，并具有稍微修改的因变量。主要发现是，影响美国小企业管理者对增长态度的最明显的感知结果是增加收入和其他财务利益的能力。在八种潜在的增长后果中，员工福利的变化和对外部利益相关者的依赖变化也排在相对较高的位置。Wiklund等。（2003）瑞典的研究发现，与之相反，非经济后果是对增长态度的最强预测指标。我们将这些态度上的差异归因于制度背景的差异，这表明政策和文化规范可能是增长动力的基础。我们还发现，总部位于美国的小型企业管理者很可能会受到认为增长是“现实的”努力的看法的影响。