This explorative research paper considers the strategic development objectives of small owner‐managed ventures in order to have an insight into how to systematically categorise the heterogeneous owner‐managed small business economy. It commences with a review of the literature and other...

TCS (previously the Teaching Company Scheme), claimed to be the UKs premier technology transfer mechanism, employs recent graduates to improve the competitiveness of primarily small and medium‐sized enterprises. The data are drawn from the author's experience of acting as academic supervisor...

This paper reports on the quintessential rural small firm, the tourist service provider and explores the impact of the recent foot and mouth outbreak. A theoretical framework is employed which proposes that many rural small firms capture and commodify the values that are inherent in the...

Small businesses and micro‐enterprises provide more than 75 per cent of all private sector employment in most countries. In today's environment where large urban areas are more attractive to young people and multinational employers, micro‐enterprise support has become a very important...

New information technologies have become the source of a new form of entrepreneurship known as cyberentrepreneurship. The cyberentrepreneur creates a firm that is essentially founded upon electronic commerce (e‐business start‐up), and whose main activities are based on exploiting networks...

Rural enterprise needs to be encouraged to preserve the countryside – not just economically but socially and culturally. The logic for policy measures to be introduced that encourage enterprise growth to constitute some reversal of economic decline in rural areas is clear. Business enterprises...

Purpose – To explore how information communication technologies (ICT) and the internet offer new opportunities for women to develop as entrepreneurs and innovators. To add to the literature and provide updated research to raise awareness about female‐run ICT small businesses....

Purpose – The article seeks to explore the importance of entrepreneurial behaviour and inter‐firm co‐operation for small firms seeking growth in a volatile, recession‐hit environment. Entrepreneurial behaviour is defined as seeking opportunities, developing new products and entering new...

Purpose – To examine the particular organizational and managerial determinants of the different aspects of a firm's export development process: intention, propensity, and intensity. Design/methodology/approach – The study analysed firms' resources and capabilities, managerial...