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1. Introduction
The paper examines the barriers to small business growth in Canada. A number of authors provide literature resources that are concerned with explaining the factors behind successful firms. Particularly, [9] Littunen and Tohmo (2003), [23] Yasuda (2005), and [24] Yang and Huang (2005) have looked at the determinants of business growth. There has been less research into exploring the problems that are encountered by entrepreneurs in their business activities ([16] Orser et al. , 2000; [20] Storey, 1994; [19] Smallbone et al. , 1995). It is important to find the barriers to small business growth in British Columbia, Canada because small business community is a vital source of job creation (M2 [12] Presswire, 2008) and a lot of Canadians rely on self-employment.
The role of entrepreneurs in promoting the economic growth of nations has been widely recognized ([11] McPherson, 1996; [13] Mead and Liedholm, 1998). Previous authors have examined barriers to business growth in: Zambia ([7] Keyser et al. , 2000); Canada ([16] Orser et al. , 2000); Hong Kong ([14] Moy and Luk, 2003); Slovenian ([3] Bukvic and Bartlett, 2003); Lithuania ([1] Aidis, 2005); Nigeria ([15] Okpara and Wynn, 2007); Kosova ([8] Krasniqi, 2007); Egypt ([5] Hassanein and Adly, 2008); Ghana ([18] Robson and Obeng, 2008); andMalaysia ([2] Alam et al. , 2011). However, there have been a very few studies into the barriers and problems encountered by entrepreneurs in Canada. Therefore, it is important to find out the barriers to small business growth in Canada. This study seeks to extend the above studies by analyzing data from Canada.
This study contributes to the literature on the barriers to small business growth at least two ways. First, not much research on the barriers to small business growth in Canada has been reported. Second this study validates the finding of [15] Okpara and Wynn (2007) and [18] Robson and Obeng (2008) by testing the relationship between lack of financing and small business growth, lack of management skills and small business growth, market challenges and small business growth, and regulatory issues and small business growth.
2. Importance of small business growth in Canada
Small business plays an integral role in the Canadian economy. In 2007, 98 percent of all businesses were small businesses...