Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development: Volume 9 Issue 1

Evolution, financial management and learning in the small firm

David Deakins, Alana Morrison, Laura Galloway

There is an assumption that inadequate financial management practices are contributors to turbulence in the small firm sector; yet there have been few investigations into the…

Learning the hard way: the lessons of owner‐managers who have closed their businesses

David Stokes, Robert Blackburn

There is a tendency to associate business “closure” with business “failure”, confusing owners that close a business with ‘unsuccessful’ entrepreneurs. This article reports on a…

Innovation, entrepreneurship and competitive advantage in the entrepreneurial venture

Graham Beaver, Christopher Prince

This paper takes a critical examination of the process and management of innovation and the attainment of competitive advantage in the emerging enterprise. The ingredients for the…

Internationalization of SMEs: a research note

Paul Westhead, Martin Binks, Deniz Ucbasaran, Mike Wright

In 1990/91, survey responses were gathered from 621 independent businesses located in Great Britain. A follow‐on telephone survey was conducted with 150 surviving firms in 1997…

Knowledge‐based services and the Internet: an investigation of small UK accountancy practices

I. Chaston, B. Badger, T. Mangles, E. Sadler‐Smith

The role of organisational learning in knowledge acquisition for competitive advantage is increasingly found in the literature. Various researchers have used qualitative, single…

Entrepreneurship, resistance to change and growth in small firms

Colin Gray

The focus of this paper is on existing small firms, with fewer than 50 employees, and their attitudes to change, using data from regular quarterly small firm surveys conducted by…

Competitive conditions, competitive advantage and the location of SMEs

Robert J. Bennett, Colin Smith

This paper uses a large‐scale survey of SMEs (1,531 respondents) in the UK to assess the factors associated with their competitive conditions and their competitive advantage…