Abstract
This paper examines organisational growth of small commercial art galleries from inception to endurance. The process of growth during the transitional phase spanning 10 years when most businesses fail is an unexplored terrain within small firm growth and entrepreneurship research. The empirical study was conducted within a stream of research on growth as a process. Growth process is operationalised as organisational development, or organisational growth, in contrast to growth as an outcome, or numerical growth. Enduring small firm is operationalised as a mature business able to withstand negative external influences by seeking business opportunities and maintaining competitive advantage.
The research contributes to filling three gaps within small firm growth and entrepreneurship literature: almost non-existent research on growth as a process, lack of research focused on the initial phase of small firm development, and lack of research on development of art business. It was aimed at exploring the process of organisational development to endurance and identifying factors that influence the successful transition in an economic setting of small commercial galleries. The purpose of the qualitative case study was to look at how art businesses successfully navigate through the most turbulent phase of organisational development. Empirical data were collected through 34 in-depth interviews conducted with owner-managers of galleries in London, New York and Berlin — the major cities of the three largest free art markets. Template analysis of the interview data led to the identification of 10 endurance factors.
The research showed that the transition to endurance is a complex process of organisational change that requires entrepreneurial approach and a positive contribution of owner-manager-related and firm-related factors. The findings indicate that successful development of small art firm is influenced by personal and organisational characteristics: motivation, ability to learn, perseverance, consistency, preference shift from self to the firm, reputation growth, network growth, equilibrium between passion and enterprise, financial discipline, and organisational improvement. The thesis concludes that successful organisational development implies numerical growth deemed by owner-managers of successful galleries as necessary to maintain opportunity focus and advantage focus. Therefore, the art firms capable of growth choose to grow.