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424 M. Virtanen and T. Heimonen
4.6 Success
All the lead entrepreneurs had different perceptions of the success of the firm.
Financial success which is mainly used as a measure of success in empirical
studies appears to be more an indirect measure of the experience of success (Stuart and
Abetti, 1987). The closest perception compared with the classical perspective of
entrepreneurship literature was stated by the CEO of Blancco Oy Ltd. First he
defined success as: “reaching the realistic objectives you have set”. The objectives
may include such variables as growth, profitability and the number of personnel. But
he also proposed that the increase of employment is not so necessary if you can grow
and be profitable without additional staff. He emphasises that you have to achieve a
decent return on your investment. “I have never understood entrepreneurship, as such, to
be an intrinsic value. That does not make sense. Entrepreneurship includes risk and you
have to get a better pay-off from your efforts compared, for example, with being a civil
servant”.
The chairman of the board of BP Asennus Oy does not see his experience as that of a
successful entrepreneur. “Success will involve some kind of independence and that is the
highest reward of success”. The lead entrepreneur points out that when the firm fares
badly no other people but the entrepreneur can be accused. On the other hand, when the
firm succeeds the entrepreneur may take a small part of the credit but several others
should take credit for the success, too.
In Mipro Oy, success was seen as survival of the business and trust and perception
of professionalism by their customers. Financial success which follows from the
professional effort will be used as an incentive. When the firm succeeds financially the
outcome will be shared out to personnel. “Over several years they have received one
month’s salary as a bonus”.
“For me success means that it has been quite easy to plan the future and to secure my
old age with a pension plan” says the CEO of Mummon Turva Oy. He is planning to
make a transfer of the firm to his descendants. He notes that: “the best characteristic of
entrepreneurship is that you are yourself responsible for the outcome of your effort. If
your firm fares badly you cannot accuse anyone else but yourself that you have made an
inferior offer”.
In Pentin Paja Oy the success is seen to be involved in the development of the firm.
“That is something we are seeking all the time. I do not know if it is some special state of
affairs, even if you succeed we continue to work as normal”. Pentin Paja Oy has received
several prizes, for example, an internationalisation prize and regional innovation prize.
External appreciation creates gratitude and good feelings and act as incentives for
improving activities. “But even the larger incentive is the actual growth since all the time
you are afraid of having no success and no profit at all. Such a stable state of affairs does
not exist but is continuously up or down”.
The majority of performance studies use some kind of financial ratio such
as profitability or job creation as measures to describe success (Acs et al., 2008;
Davidsson et al., 2009). The entrepreneurs themselves, even if some of them highlight
the importance of profitability and return on investment, consider such subjective
measures as independence, professional pride, family values and external recognition as
their major motives and incentives for their entrepreneurial career. Moreover, the lead
entrepreneurs are quite modest and did not claim themselves to be really successful
entrepreneurs.