Catálogo de Investigaciones | 2010-2011

Empresas 54 Home-Based Business: Types, Scale, and Economic Significance In Puerto Rico This study consisted of a descriptive/correlational research project that pursued the goal of describing the HBBs in Puerto Rico by finding, analyzing, and relating their characteristics to develop a profile of this business sector. It measured three main quantitative variables: types, scale, and economic significance. The economic significance was addressed from two standpoints: (1) the owner, in terms of his/her motivation to become self-employed (from the perspective of the Pull-Push Theory) and (2) the owner, in terms of his/her contribution to the economy of the country and community. Primary data had to be based on a non-probability convenience sampling, obtained through an electronic questionnaire sent to 562 e-mail addresses from the electronic mailing list of the Small and Medium Size Enterprises Association (ASOPYMES, by its Spanish acronym), an organization assumed to provide the only source of access to business with a good fit to the HBB definition based on the number of employees. Chi-Square was used to test the research hypotheses at a 5% significance level using the statistics program SPSS. Four null hypotheses (H0) were rejected with a p < .05. The research found, however, that there is a significant relationship between HBB owner gender and reported annual sales (H0/2), between HBB owner gender and the parental status (H0/4), between HBB owner gender and age (H0/5), and between the HBB zone location and the number of employees of the HBB (H0/9). The findings of the frequencies of each business owners’ characteristics and HBB characteristics allow for some conclusions about the profile of the HBB and the HBB owner. Several recommendations have emerged from this experience and the findings of the research. Zoraida I. Patiño Lorenzo mentor DR. FRANK J. SIERRA CORTES administración de empresas