Coordination and Competition in Small Business Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Australia and Denmark

Small business policy has become a major focus of industrial policy initiatives in the OECD countries (Storey and Tether 1998). A range of policy measures are utilised in support of small business, including direct financial support, the provision of advisory services, the education and training of entrepreneurs and linkages between firms and the social environment. These policy measures are often regarded as interdependent, creating an overall public policy system in support of small firms (Parker 1999, 2000; Storey and Tether 1998). While there is a common trend of increasing support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the OECD, different countries appear to have developed very different approaches to small business policy (OECD 2000a). The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for the cross-national comparison of small business policy. In the first section of the paper, existing frameworks for the comparative analysis of industrial policy are expanded to accommodate the focus on the firm in small business policy. This reflects the increasing tendency to link competitiveness to the strategic behaviour of organisations within a particular national context (Porter 1990).