Full-text of this article is not available in this e-prints service. This article was originally published [following peer-review] in Employee Relations, published by and copyright Emerald.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of market orientation for small manufacturers vying to be suppliers in the mass retail marketplace. It examines the mediating effect of product‐related factors (market readiness and market level) on the market...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore current management attitudes towards benchmarking and its implementation within small business‐to‐business service firms in order to enhance a deeper understanding of benchmarking within such contexts. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses...

Facing increased competitive pressures due to globalisation and increased quality requirements from their customers, small and medium‐sized manufacturers must increase their productivity and their competitiveness in order to survive and prosper. One way of evaluating the attainment of this...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present research into the employment relationship in small firms and to examine its link to high performance. A psychological contract framework is adopted, it being argued that this supports a more nuanced analysis than existing perspectives on the...

Purpose – Daniel Defoe, best known as the author of Robinson Crusoe , was also an early entrepreneur who late in his life published a business text called The Complete English Tradesman. The purpose of this paper is to argue that The Complete English Tradesman should be given renewed...