y. The firm size criterion creates a built in ambiguity in any attempt to define small business.
The management independence and capital provision criteria eliminate many contemporary entrepreneurial ventures from the small business category. Capital for a significant proportion of entrepreneurial ventures in the 1990s is provided by venture capital firms. While these venture capitalists commit themselves to backing entrepreneurial innovation, they also tend to place definite restrictions on the scope of managerial prerogatives.
The 1980 White House Conference on Small Business defined a small business as one with 500 or fewer employees. This definition covers almost all business enterprises in the United States 99.7 percent. Business enterprises included in this definition accounted for 47.8 percent of non government and non farm employment, 42 percent of sales revenues, and 38 percent of the country's GNP in the late 1980s. These proportions indicate that small business plays an important role in the America
...