The Role of Mood in Managing Small Businesses–Evidence from Dairy Farming

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore how the mood of managers of small family owned firms influence on involvement from other family members, relations with business consultants, and the decision to maintain production. We randomly drew a sample of 90 dairy farmers who were visited and interviewed. First we did a qualitative analysis of the data and then we merged the interview data with a database showing who had maintained dairy farming six years after the interviews. Our results show that farmers in a happy mood get more help from the rest of the family in farming activities than farmers in a neutral or bad mood. Farmers in a bad mood are less satisfied with the consultancy service than farmers in a happy or neutral mood. Six years after the interview more farmers in a happy mood maintained dairy farming as compared to farmers in a neutral or bad mood. Our findings are relevant to all managers of small family owned businesses.