A national minimum wage (NMW) was introduced into the United Kingdom in 1999 as part of New Labour's active labour-market approach. The level has been uprated on several occasions since then. Most research suggests that the NMW has benefited low-paid workers while having little adverse impact on...

Despite growing interest in venture capital, there is a paucity of information on the rate of return to these investments and the limited research that is available refers almost entirely to portfolio returns for venture capital funds. The investment returns to business angels have been...

The role of venture capital in economic development increasingly is recognized as central to the development of an entrepreneurial economy. However, the supply of venture capital is not distributed evenly across the space economy. In the UK, evidence for the 1980s demonstrated that venture...

The UK Labour Government has provided support for the establishment of regional venture capital funds in each of the English regions as part of its drive to create an entrepreneurially led knowledge- based economy. This initiative is a response to persistent gaps in the provision of start-up and...

Most potential funders wish to see a business plan as a first step in deciding whether or not to invest. However, much of the literature on how to write a business plan fails to emphasize that different types of funder look at business plans from different perspectives. Using a real time...

The ability of small firms to access finance is hindered by persistent market failure, which creates funding gaps for new businesses, particularly in technology sectors, seeking small amounts of finance. This has prompted various forms of public sector intervention to increase the supply of both...

The view that excessive regulation constrains small business growth has been a persistent theme within business and policy communities, although recent studies have demonstrated the actual effects of regulation to be relatively modest. A prior small-scale study proposed four reasons why...

This paper reports the results of a pilot study of (a) the provision of press cuttings libraries and (b) use of press cuttings by social scientists. The study was undertaken for a Working Group convened in September 1975 by the British International Studies Association (BISA). (The Working Group...