In this issue of the Policy Review Section , P. J. A. Robson and R. J. Bennett of the ESRC Centre for Business Research consider the most appropriate delivery mechanisms for the Government's new Small Business Service. In the second article, Philip Boland of the Department of City and Regional...

In the late 1990s Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were introduced into the English economic development policy and partnership landscape. Cited as a way in which to improve regional competitiveness and innovation, their task is to build institutional capacity by creating a strategic context...

<title/> BENNETT R. J. (1998) Explaining the membership of voluntary local business associations: the example of British Chambers of Commerce, <italic>Reg. Studies</italic> 32, 503-514. This paper presents an analytical model which seeks to explain the size of Chamber of Commerce membership and the depth of market...

BENNETT R. J. (1997) Administrative systems and economic spaces, Reg. Studies 31, 323-336. This paper examines the interrelation between economic change and administrative reforms. It argues that both decentralization and centralization of administration are occurring that derive from responding...

BENNETT R. J., BRATTON W. A. and ROBSON P. J. A. (2000) Business advice: the influence of distance, Reg. Studies 34, 813-828. This paper examines the external advisors used by small businesses to help them solve their problems, focusing on distance between client and advisor. The analysis is...

BENNETT R. J. and ROBSON P. J. A. (2003) Changing use of external business advice and government supports by SMEs in the 1990s, Reg. Studies 37 , 795-811. This paper uses cross-sectional surveys of 1991 and 1997, a panel survey of firms surviving between 1991 and 1997 and comparison with a...