Owner‐manager relationships preceding and during start‐up: issues of help, harm, trust and morality

This paper explores the relationship between 16 owner‐managers and other individuals preceding and during the start‐up of their businesses. Multiple sources of evidence are used, including taped biographical accounts and semi‐structured interviews, in an endeavour to establish who is helped and who is harmed by these relationships. The relationships are explored before and after start‐up to trace the chains of causality which result in the helping and harming consequences for the businesses and individuals. Trust between the owner‐managers and other individuals is found to be at the core of the chains of causality. The relationship between owner‐managers and their ex‐employers emerges as being particularly significant and largely overlooked by existing research. Managerial and policy implications are explored. This leads to a discussion of the morality of harming in order to support the development of the emergent firm.