Determinants of SME’s Employment Growth Relating to the Characteristics of the Manager

Considerable empirical research has been devoted to the study of the impact of the manager's characteristics on the growth of his firm. However, the majority of this work is centred on the analysis of one or of a limited number of predictors. Furthermore, no research has provided an exhaustive list of all of the variables previously studied. We have filled this gap and tested the potential influence on employment growth of 28 variables, grouped into 5 sub-categories. Our results show that employment growth within SMEs is uniquely influenced by certain variables linked to two sub-groups, namely, the expertise of the manager and his demographic characteristics. Psychological characteristics, motivations and the presence of a team of managers do not exert a significant impact on employment growth in the sample of Belgian SMEs that we studied