The relationship between the manager and growth in small firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the relationship between the manager and growth in small firms, through a review of earlier research. Design/methodology/approach – A review of articles published during the last 25 years is carried out in order to answer the question: How does the top manager influence growth in small firms? Findings – Three key relationships are identified: between growth and, respectively, managerial traits and characteristics, managerial intentions, and managerial behavior or roles. The diverse findings in the literature are contradictory and give a paradoxical picture of the impact of the manager. A deeper analysis of the results from the review, supplemented with leadership theory, yields a better understanding of small‐firm growth with a special focus on the behavior of the manager . Research limitations/implications – This paper problematizes the complexity in managing small‐firm growth, and can be further empirically validated by using multiple methods including qualitative ones such as observational studies. Practical Implications – The findings have a bearing on education and policy implications. If a behavior can be identified that promotes small firms' growth, education and policy implications can be developed in line with these results. Originality/value – In small firms there seems to be a general consensus that managers do influence the performance of small firms, but so far there has not been a systematic review of earlier empirical research, that is done in this paper. From this review, a more complete picture of how managers influence growth in small firms is presented.