New Zealand (NZ) was the first developed country to sign a free trade agreement with China. Afterwards, the NZ government crafted a narrative to encourage businesses to pursue opportunities there and in emerging Asia more generally to enact the enabling institutional change. Our study shows...

The methods Western SMEs can use to activate assets of foreignness in compressed developing markets are not well understood. To fill this gap, this study identifies three main mechanisms for such activation: conforming to home-country institutions, creating distancing narratives and accentuating...

This qualitative, longitudinal study of 12 innovative young New Zealand ventures investigates how individual entrepreneurs develop their venture opportunity amidst emerging rivalry. Two phases are identified: the pursuit of the initial opportunity, and developing it under rivalry. Adopting a...

A number of prominent publishers in the UK and US have become parts of globalized media groups. In Japan, by contrast, they have neither been absorbed into media groups nor become globalized businesses. Based on interviews of major players in the Japanese publishing industry as well as annual...

Local clusters of high technology small businesses are of increasing interest to politician and academics. This papers draws on a study of 237 high tech small businesses located throughout the UK. Combining information on activity and location, firms were grouped according to their potential...

This paper looks at the profound transitions Japan is currently experiencing, focusing on 'techno-entrepreneurship' and ideological currents of nationalism and internationalism. After a brief examination of Japan's financial crisis, it focuses on manufacturing, both in large firms - with a case...

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...

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...

Across Europe those who create and run high-tech SMEs have become a primary focus of industrial policy. Part of the rationale for the focus on small high-tech firms lies in the desire to emulate the experience of the US, particularly Silicon Valley and Boston in which spinning off new ventures...

Entrepreneurs cannot develop a business single handedly. One of the most important tasks the entrepreneur faces is to recruit, allocate work to, motivate and retain employees who will help the business to grow. Based on survey data, this paper examines the HRM orientations of UK and Japanese...