The majority of employees currently working in the private sector are now employed in small firms, yet little is known about their working conditions. This collection of essays addresses this gap. Based on theoretical analysis supported by contemporary empirical evidence, the book explores key...

The majority of employees currently working in the private sector are now employed in small firms, yet little is known about their working conditions. This collection of essays addresses this gap. Based on theoretical analysis supported by contemporary empirical evidence, the book explores key...

High technology incubators have been funded in universities by the UK government as part of the ‘third mission’ for higher education (DTI 2000a). The provision of such facilities is premised on the notion that new technology firms achieve success at least in part from the benefits of...

Following the Earth Summit in 1992, most UK local authorities have pursued sustainable development through Local Agenda 21 (LA21) partnerships. However, few academic or practitioner studies have examined the degree to which partnership processes are suitable for LA21. Local Agenda 21 seeks to be...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

This paper draws on the policy transfer literature to examine a UK-based initiative topromote supplier diversity and provides insights to three areas neglected in currentresearch. Namely: the dynamics of non-governmental policy transfer; the factors thatmediate policy transfer in different...

This article has its origins in research indicating the promise supplier diversityprogrammes hold in empowering ethnic minority enterprises to achieve breakout tomainstream markets and business growth. From a realist evaluation perspective itreports on the first phase of SDEM (Supplier...

In recent years there have been important academic and policy-related developments in thefield of ethnic-minority entrepreneurship in the UK. It is a subject that is marked by increasingtheoretical sophistication and activity on the part of policy makers and practitioners. We investigatethe...

The role of human resource management practices in promoting the performance of firms is widely debated. Yet much of the debate has reached an impasse, with uncertain results as to which practices in fact work and why. It has, moreover, rarely gone beyond the context of large firms. This paper...

Business rhetoric and conventional theory expect that employment regulations will have negative effects on small firms. Prior research has shown that effects are quite rare, but has not explained why. Case studies of 18 firms from three sectors identified four explanations. (1) Perceptions of...