Employees are crucial for the achievement of internal quality and consequently for business performance of companies. The quality of employees, their competencies, loyalty and commitment are extremely important for business performance achievement. For development of employee loyalty it can be important that employees find in work, which they perform, challenge, interest and the feeling of accomplishment. The way of treatment of employees in the organization is decisive in determining if employees will indeed become an integral part of the competitive advantage of the company. The paper focuses on employee loyalty and growth of companies. The hypothesis about the relationships between employee loyalty and firm growth was developed and empirically tested. Data collection was based of responses to the structured questionnaire on the sample of Slovenian companies from service and manufacturing industries. The hypothesis was tested by using regression analysis. Findings indicate a positive relationship between employee loyalty and firm growth, particularly for manufacturing firms. Recommendations for companies are also provided.

Research concerned with the personality of entrepreneurs entails an important part of the research into the management of small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship. This research has added new knowledge about the role of entrepreneurs’ personality characteristics, their family entrepreneurial background, and the local supportive entrepreneurial background in entrepreneurial start-up intentions and behaviors. Hypotheses and a model were developed and verified using structural equation modeling and regression analysis considering data from a sample of entrepreneurs and students. This research revealed that several personality and sociological factors can be important for entrepreneurship when it comes to starting a business. The most important were the Big Five personality factors openness, extraversion, and non-agreeableness and, to a smaller extent, emotional stability (non-neuroticism), and conscientiousness. The second-most important group of factors were the specific motivational characteristics entrepreneurial self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and risk-taking propensity. Sociological factors were much less important than psychological elements for establishing business.

Purpose: – New firm creation plays an important role in economic development and growth. Despite the recognized importance of general and entrepreneurial self-efficacy for entrepreneurship, new firm creation, and growth, research has devoted minimal attention to explicitly investigating the relationship between marketing self-efficacy and firm creation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between marketing self-efficacy and firm creation.Design/methodology/approach: – Data were collected in two European countries (Finland and Slovenia). Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis.Findings: – The findings of this study demonstrate that marketing self-efficacy makes a difference in firm creation.Research limitations/implications: – The model advanced in this study is partial and not comprehensive. Gaining insights into marketing self-efficacy-based firm creation in established economies of northern Europe and transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe can be valuable for broadening the new firm formation research and improving marketing self-efficacy-related practices in these countries.Practical implications: – Practitioners and policymakers need to be aware that marketing self-efficacy can be an important driver of new firm creation.Social implications: – It is suggested that economic policymakers make funds available or channel investments into training and education in marketing abilities in elementary, middle, higher, and university education levels in order to increase marketing self-efficacy levels in the population.Originality/value: – This study contributes to a better understanding of firm creation induced by marketing self-efficacy by developing and testing a normative model.

Entrepreneurs as individuals are the main drivers of entrepreneurship and possess distinct personality characteristics. The study focused on entrepreneurial openness and creativity on the entrepreneurial level relative to business growth. Hypotheses were developed and empirically tested in structural equation models using survey data obtained from SMEs’ entrepreneurs in three countries. This study adds to what is known about entrepreneurship and small business management in terms of normative research on firm growth by empirically examining the relationships between the entrepreneurial openness, creative personality, and creativity of the entrepreneur and growth of the company. Moreover, the study develops refined internationally comparable measures of entrepreneurial openness, entrepreneur creativity, and a creative personality. An entrepreneur’s openness and creative personality may be essential for their creativity. The entrepreneur’s creativity may be a vital element of company growth in some countries.