THE RESEARCH AGENDA FOR SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS

Books reviewed in this article:
Acs, Z. and Audretsch, D. B. (eds.) (1990) The Economics of Small Firms: A European Challenge     

The development and evaluation of an andragogic training programme for small business retailers

One of the greatest challenges facing South Africa after apartheid is job creation and the development of people's skills. Small business, and retailing in particular, with its relatively low entry requirements, can help to meet this challenge. However, small business retailing suffers from a high failure rate.

It was felt that small business retailers would be more likely to succeed if they received proper training. A small business training model was therefore developed and implemented and the results were evaluated from several perspectives. This indicated that if small business retailers are effectively trained their knowledge and skills will improve and their businesses will be more likely to survive and grow. The article describes the model, the systematic approach to the training, the methods of evaluation and the lessons to be learnt from the exercise.     

The Ethics of the International Arms Trade

Unless one is a pacifist there is little difficulty in theory in ethically justifying a country's entitlement to produce or to purchase, or even to market, weapons for the preservation of internal order or external peace. In practice, however, the international arms industry gives considerable cause for ethical misgivings, which are here explored. "It is difficult to escape from the notion that the primary factor behind the international sale of arms is the generation of profits. If companies are left unchecked, there is considerable evidence that companies will exploit commercial opportunities to the detriment of ethical considerations."     

Positioning hierarchy in enterprise system change

There is a widening gulf in change literature between theoretical notions of evolving organisational form and the emerging reality that old and new organisational structures coexist. This paper explores this dichotomy in Enterprise Resource Planning change. It develops a cellular hierarchy framework to explain how different types of hierarchy coexist within the same organisation during the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning.     

Can locker box logistics enable more human-centric medical supply chains?

The fast flow of goods into hospitals is often stalled by the external–internal supply chain interface (i.e. the receipts department). This issue is particularly pertinent regarding the delivery of urgent items for specific patients or in the event of low inventory levels. An unattended electronic locker bank to which individual urgent items can be delivered and subsequently collected by the ‘user’ was proposed for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, UK. The feasibility of this concept is quantified using a hill-climbing model operating with a significant database of consignment movements and qualitatively using staff interviews. Results indicate that a locker bank measuring 4 m length, 1.7 m height and 0.8 m depth, comprising 11 partitions, would be required to accommodate all urgent consignments for any given day. Staff perceptions of the concept were positive suggesting the locker would potentially improve the speed and quality of health care delivered to patients.     

‘Keep out’ signs: the role of deterrence in the competition for resources

To explain resource heterogeneity, past research focuses on how rivals' resources are hidden from firms and firms accordingly have difficulties accessing them. We argue that resource heterogeneity may also arise when firms are deterred from a technological space upon being shown what resources rivals already possess within that space. To illustrate this deterrence effect, we use patent reexamination certificates, which indicate strategic stakes within a technological space without materially disclosing additional details of the underlying technologies and hence avoid the confounding effect of attracting competition through disclosure. We demonstrate how rivals' reexamination certificates within a technological space induce a firm to subsequently allocate less inventive effort in that space, based on two mechanisms—indications of rivals' developmental speed and exclusionary ability. We further develop these two mechanisms by arguing that the deterrence effect is stronger when rivals' speed is enhanced by their downstream capabilities, or when rivals' exclusion is enhanced by their litigation experiences. Findings suggest that a firm's path of resource accumulation evolves through avoidance of rivals' paths, and deterrence may constitute a viable alternative theory of resource heterogeneity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intermediated mode of internationalization: new software ventures in Ireland and India

This paper longitudinally examines the relationship between the career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs, their growth preferences and subsequent growth achieved. The longitudinal design allows for examination and control of both survivorship and recall bias upon career reason and growth linkages. Substantial recall bias was observed in the career reasons of entrepreneurs, with the reported importance of self-realization and financial success, as explanations for entering venturing activity, being significantly lower when responses were obtained once the venture was operational. Consistent with economic motives, the importance that the entrepreneur places on financial success was a key determinant to explain cross-sectional differences in growth preferences of the entrepreneur, the intended size of the venture, and achieved growth. Further, the importance of financial success was robust to the use of both prospective and retrospective career reasons. While independence was the most important factor to explain the career choices of nascent entrepreneurs, independence was also found to be negatively associated with intended and achieved employment growth. Overall, the findings demonstrate that nascent entrepreneur career reasons for self-employment are not homogeneous, vary by growth intentions and preferences, and are associated with subsequent venture growth achieved.     

The dominant firm with convex technology

The paper analyses a dominant firm model in which firms have convex production sets. The model is shown to be determinate, and to be expressible by a set of (n+1) equilibrium conditions. A previous attempt to obtain comparative statics results is criticized as being invalid, and a new framework for comparative statics is developed.     

Beyond greening: new dialogue and new approaches for developing sustainability

The Sixth International Conference of the Greening of Industry Network, Developing Sustainability: New Dialogue, New Approaches, was held in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 16–19 November 1997. This special edition of Business Strategy and the Environment attempts to capture the dialogue from the conference by presenting seven edited papers from the conference, a review of the conference's objectives and achievements from the perspective of the conference organizers, and this introductory essay. Each of the seven papers takes a different cut at theoretical, empirical and methodological questions around the focus of the conference. Together they represent the diversity and creativity of approach that is central to the conference's objective of establishing new dialogue on processes of greening and progress towards sustainable development. The organization of the conference and significant conference highlights, such as the incorporation of CERES into the organization of the conference, and the expansion of the Network into Asia, are reviewed by the conference organizers in this special edition (Fatkin and Fischer, 1998). This essay discusses new dialogues and new approaches to industrial transformation emerging from Santa Barbara. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.