It is agreed that within the UK there is a poor level of investment in formal training and development. This is particularly evident within the small firm sector. The literature, which considers this issue, concludes that there are a number of reasons why small firm owners are, on the whole,...

This paper addresses the issue of environmental auditing by smaller business units and compares the actions of the small firm sector with those of larger organisations. It will focus on four key themes: the necessity to bring small firms to environmental account; the relationship between...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

This paper draws on the policy transfer literature to examine a UK-based initiative topromote supplier diversity and provides insights to three areas neglected in currentresearch. Namely: the dynamics of non-governmental policy transfer; the factors thatmediate policy transfer in different...

This article has its origins in research indicating the promise supplier diversityprogrammes hold in empowering ethnic minority enterprises to achieve breakout tomainstream markets and business growth. From a realist evaluation perspective itreports on the first phase of SDEM (Supplier...

In recent years there have been important academic and policy-related developments in thefield of ethnic-minority entrepreneurship in the UK. It is a subject that is marked by increasingtheoretical sophistication and activity on the part of policy makers and practitioners. We investigatethe...