As part of the UK’s major policy of constitutional devolution, the first Scottish Parliament in 300 years was established in Summer 1999. This paper examines how that decentralisation of political decision making is connected to organisational excellence in the Scottish public sector via...

This paper presents the findings from an Objective 4 research project funded through the European Social Fund. A total of 60 innovative technology based SMEs in the Aberdeen area agreed to take part in structured interviews which addressed a broad range of strategic issues. Information was...

Purpose – To study some of the difficulties involved in defining the nature of social enterprises and the environments in which they operate in order to provide a framework to show how and where social enterprises fit in the overall social economy. Design/methodology/approach – The...

Business skills, particularly in the areas of science, engineering and technology (SET) and small firm development are becoming increasingly important. The vocational skills student learns can be augmented by an understanding of how business operates as well as an appreciation that enterprise...

Purpose – Research has shown that employers in small businesses may not provide, or fund, off‐the‐job training for reasons including that they believe that no training was considered necessary in their business. The research reported in this paper aims to focus on a study of...