Business Commons^™

Effective Strategies To Sustain Small Businesses In Rural Areas, Nicole A. Dobson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Compared to their urban counterparts rural small businesses face unique socio-economic and environmental challenges including isolation, lack of resources, poverty, limited networks, and a smaller population of working age adults. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore effective strategies that rural small business managers have used to sustain a business in their area. The population for this study included a purposeful selection of 8 rural small businesses. Institutional theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data was collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews of participants. The data was analyzed and coded by using a modified Van …

Success Strategies Of Small Business Owners, Lyndabelle Jakes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, 20% of newly established small businesses, including small

businesses in the life insurance industry, fail within 2 years, and over 50% of them fail during the first 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify and explore the strategies that life insurance brokerage owners use to sustain business operations beyond 5 years. Porter's 5 forces model served as the conceptual framework for exploring this subject matter. Owners of 3 separate small life insurance brokerage firms in Texas, who sustained their businesses beyond 5 years, participated in semistructured interviews. A secondary source of …