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This research explores the critical success factors of private practice (PP) Speech Pathology/Speech-Language Therapy (Speech Language Pathology, (SLP)) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and in New Zealand (NZ). A cross-sectional mixed method survey provided quantitative and qualitative data allowing comparison between SLP private practitioners (SLPPPs) in terms of country, location (city, regional, rural), ethnicity, and age. The participants include 15 NZ SLPPPs, and 95 SLPPPs from NSW. The only significant difference between the participants from NSW and NZ was a lack of SLPPPs from rural locations in NZ. Participants’ responses were combined for analysis. The 11 success criteria, consisting of 10 small business success criteria established by Gorgievski, Ascalon and Stephan (2011), and professional satisfaction, were ranked. ‘Satisfied stakeholders’, ‘professional satisfaction’ and ‘utility’ (usefulness) were the first three highest ranked criteria for SLPPPs. Factor analysis of the success criteria established four sub-groups: ‘business’, ‘professional satisfaction’, ‘innovation’, and ‘contribution to society’. SLPPPs self-rated their performance on questions relating to the 11 success criteria; 70.9% of participants rated with a high level of total success. The sub-groups with the highest self-rated mean performance were: ‘contribution to society’, ‘professional satisfaction’, ‘innovation’, and ‘business’ (in order from highest to lowest). The performance of SLPPPs, rated using the total success rating score, was correlated or co-varied with SLPPPs’ ‘ability’: personal characteristics: resilience, and cultural literacy; experience: business skills experience, experience as private practitioners (PPs) and on-the-job experience; and professional competence. Performance was also correlated or co-varied with ‘opportunity’: business structure; business strategy: cost value propositions; financial capital; human capital; marketing: challenging the assumption of referrers; management practices: leadership practices, documentation, business adaptability, support for innovation and business support; social capital; and professional practices: ensuring a range of clinical policies and practices in keeping with professional standards. These factors are the critical success factors (CSF) for SLPPPs. Thematic analysis of qualitative data reinforced the themes and issues relating to ‘professionalism’: clinical and business skills; the values of SLP, the relationship between PP and business, survival, support, time management, and practices around finance. This research provides support for the components of ‘ability’ and ‘opportunity’ in the performance of SLPPPs using Boxall and Purcell’s (2011) model of performance where: performance = ability.motivation.opportunity. Further research is necessary in order to explore the relationship between SLPPPs’ ‘motivation’ and the performance of SLPPPs and the viability of SLP PP. |
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