Small business economics: A perspective from The Netherlands

✍ Scribed by Roy Thurik

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 819 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-898X
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00389889

✦ Synopsis

In 1988, Roy Thurik was appointed as professor of small business economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He was the first to be appointed to this chair, which was newly founded at the Econometric Institute of the Economics Faculty. Thurik is also head of the department of fundamental research at the Research Institute for Small and Medium-Sized Business in Zoetermeer. At the occasion of his appomtment to the edltorial board of Small Business Economics: An International JournaL we asked him to translate and adapt a part of his inaugural lecture which he delivered at Erasmus University on February, 2, 1989. In this edited version he first considers the historical background of what led to the econometric approach of small business research in The Netherlands. He provides an analysis of what, in fact, constitutes small business economics, distinguishing between three levels of research. He stresses the important role the entrepreneur should play in small business research. And, finally, he provides several reasons why small business economics is a relevant and important discipline.