Managerial competence of SME owner/manager - does regional context matter?

Business ventures need to consider multi-faceted cultural and operational elements in order to survive in the global business environment. Entrepreneurs who intend to set up and develop their business successfully should possess international attributes, as the new business development model emphasizes comparison beyond borders. The question in trying to develop such international entrepreneurs is whether or not entrepreneurs from different place are similar or different with regard to their personal qualities. Using Hong Kong and the U.K. samples, this paper attempts to provide a comparison between these two groups of entrepreneurs. The basis of comparison is entrepreneurial competence, which is argued to be a good representative dimension of the personal qualities of entrepreneurs. The results suggest that there is no statistically significant on the difference between Hong Kong and U.K. entrepreneurs, despite the fact that they are not the same in some trait-competencies and knowledge/skill competencies. It is suggested that the differences in trait competencies are mainly due to cultural environment, while the differences in knowledge/skill competencies are due to the operational environment. The paper concludes that the universality of entrepreneurs’ competence is possible but depends on competence transferability.Department of Management and Marketin