Researching the Importance of Minnesota's Small Businesses at the State Fair
At this year's Minnesota State Fair, Professor Jane Sumner engaged with fair goers on their perception of Minnesota small business owners and her current research project. Read the below Q&A to learn more about Jane's research and experience at the State Fair.
What are the primary concerns you are exploring in this research project?
My coauthor, Andrew Kerner (Michigan State), and I are interested in how small business owners in Minnesota relate to their local communities and to local politics. Specifically, we're studying how brick-and-mortar small business owners engage differently from strictly online small business owners. In the survey we did at the Minnesota State Fair, we were also able to study the general population, which helps us understand how small business owners of both types compare to the general population, and also how the general population sees small business owners.
What sparked your interest in this topic?
Most of my work in the past has been on large, multinational companies. For my first book, I did interviews with representatives of businesses, and I noticed that the ways the representatives of the smaller businesses thought were so different from the representatives of the big businesses. Often this was because the people I spoke to from the small businesses were the owners, because the owners were also their own HR and government affairs and everything else. Instead of large organizations making decisions via committee, it was usually one or two people who were every role and also had their own identities and sense of self tied up with the business, as well. It reminded me of the Mitt Romney quote, "corporations are people, my friend:" he didn't mean it this way, but small businesses really are also people—the distinction between the person and the business is pretty flimsy. The more interested I became in this, the more I realized that political science knows very little about small business owners, and now here we are.
What is the importance of this topic?
The overwhelming majority of businesses in the U.S. are small businesses and they're a really beloved and important political group. Basically everyone likes small business owners and supporting them is one of the very few remaining truly bipartisan / non-partisan things. But there's also so little known about them.
How are you conducting your research?
We've been doing interviews for about two years. Last summer we did focus groups. We launched a big survey last fall by mailing postcards to tens of thousands of randomly-selected businesses. Then we did a survey at the State Fair. Now we're back to interview recruitment and planning focus groups!
How did you come to be at the State Fair's Driven to Discover Research Facility this year?
I did data collection at rural county fairs in previous summers and it was such a great experience—it was really great to meet people, talk to them, and actually hear their opinions. I have wanted to do data collection at the State Fair for years, but we could never make it work until this year.
What was your experience being at the State Fair?
It was great! We spoke to so many people about our research and about their experiences. People were so nice and helpful. I also had a fawaffle two nights in a row for dinner, which, on its own, would have been worth it. And my coauthor, Andrew, had never been to the MN State Fair, so I got to show him the butter sculptures and the giant vegetables.
What has been the most interesting part of this project so far?
I've really enjoyed all the interviews we've done and I enjoyed talking with people at the Fair. Small business owners are just such creative and hardworking people, and I'm always in awe when I hear about all they've done and plan to do.
What's next for this project?
We'll be doing more interviews and focus groups, and possibly another big survey, but right now we just need to actually write our book.
Composed by Sophia Paschke, communications associate.
