The extraordinary growth of the Irish economy - the 'Celtic Tiger' - since the mid-1990s has attracted a great deal of interest, commentary and research. Indeed, many countries are now looking to Ireland as an economic development role model, and The Sapir Report (2003) has suggested that...

This paper provides a large scale analysis of the influence of location on the extent of use and impact of external advice and collaboration on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain. The analysis indicates that for private sector advisors (accountants, consultants etc) and...

This paper provides an overview of the role of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in employment generation in both advanced and developing countries and a critique of the 'job generation' literature in both contexts. It sets out an analytical approach to the question of SME growth based...

This paper uses cross-sectional surveys of 1991 and 1997, and a panel survey of firms surviving between 1991 and 1997, to compare the levels of use by SMEs of external business advice. The analysis demonstrates only modest changes over time in aggregate use, and these are not statistically...

Investigates how entrepreneurs in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine finance start-up and restructuring. Data from 600 de novo, privatised or state-owned firms shows the critical importance of the personal funds of the main owner(s), with a limited level of support being giving by the state.

Entrepreneurship has become an important issue for policy. At one level, enterprise creation is recognised as important for employment growth and effecting structural change; at another, there is concern to encourage existing firms to become more entrepreneurial as a means of enhancing...

Encouraging the spinning out of high tech companies from higher education institutes (HEIS) is now a major tenet of industrial policy in the UK and other European countries. New enterprise formation is seen as a vehicle for technology transfer and the commercialisation of research by...

This paper reviews the recent development and growth of small and medium-sized high-technology firms in the Cambridge region of the United Kingdom, as an example of an innovative and R&D-focused business cluster associated with a major international university and successful local science and...

This paper looks at entrepreneurs' attempts to create a new local industry for regional regeneration in Japan, collaborating together beyond their own organizations. The case study suggests that successful collaboration requires a certain type of inter-organizational coordination ('collaboration...

This paper presents the findings of a survey of 237 high tech small and medium sized businesses based in the UK. The survey is part of an ongoing comparative study of high tech small businesses in the UK and Japan. The paper describes the growth, innovative activity and market structure of...