European integration has prompted great interest in the adjustment capacities of small and medium enterprises in regions characterized by high levels of unemployment and lower-than-average incomes. At issue, in these circumstances, is the extent to which economic competitiveness can be enhanced...

Networks of interaction have assumed particular significance in recent years because of their presumed importance for learning and innovation. Alliances between related firms are thought to encourage interactive learning between participating organizations through the sharing of knowledge and...

For some, networks have ontological status, being associated with the embeddedness of social life in general and the necessary embeddedness of firms in their industries and regions in particular. For others less certain about ontology, networks are vital ingredients in firm-specific competitive...

Quintessentially a US phenomenon, the information and knowledge economy (IKE) combines regional clusters of innovation with new and sophisticated forms of intellectual and finance capital. For those European economies struggling to adjust to global competition, the IKE is seen as the panacea. It...

In this paper, we emphasize the links between agent-centred decision-making and the role and status of the context in which decision-making takes place. Our problem is simple yet complex: how can we explain the acknowledged importance of path-dependence while allowing for agents to step away...

This article investigates relationships between Owner Managers and First Line Managers (supervisors) in small firms. A model comprising four components - competency, role, style and vision - was developed to consider the operating reality of this dyad, and its robustness considered using an...

Over the past decade, the study of management and organization theory has experienced a significant ‘turn to work’. This turn to work has not, however, been a return to the study of the forms of work that have been the traditional focus of organizational scholars. Instead, the turn to work...

Multi-sector collaboration is an important means of achieving strategic, cross-sectoral change. However, it also presents significant managerial challenges. In this paper, we examine these challenges in the case of a multi-sector collaboration formed to address treatment issues in the Canadian...