Abstract
Multiple entrepreneurship can offer an alternative approach to understanding business growth mechanisms. Despite the growing interest in entrepreneurs who have been involved in more than one venture, few studies have focused on serial and portfolio entrepreneurship. This article explores the prevalence of multiple entrepreneurship among successful small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral locations, and compares SMEs owned by multiple business entrepreneurs with SMEs owned by single business entrepreneurs. Multiple business entrepreneurs were defined as SME owner‐managers who are both serial and portfolio owners simultaneously. Among successful owner‐managed SMEs 22 per cent of firms were owned by such multiple entrepreneurs, and only 50 per cent by single business entrepreneurs. The comparison revealed 11 variables that showed differences between these two groups of SMEs. Multiple entrepreneurship was emphasized among entrepreneurs of growth firms. The findings suggest that more attention should be paid to the roles of the multiple entrepreneurs in regional economic development.