European integration has prompted great interest in the adjustment capacities of small and medium enterprises in regions characterized by high levels of unemployment and lower-than-average incomes. At issue, in these circumstances, is the extent to which economic competitiveness can be enhanced...

Networks of interaction have assumed particular significance in recent years because of their presumed importance for learning and innovation. Alliances between related firms are thought to encourage interactive learning between participating organizations through the sharing of knowledge and...

Quintessentially a US phenomenon, the information and knowledge economy (IKE) combines regional clusters of innovation with new and sophisticated forms of intellectual and finance capital. For those European economies struggling to adjust to global competition, the IKE is seen as the panacea. It...

In this paper, we emphasize the links between agent-centred decision-making and the role and status of the context in which decision-making takes place. Our problem is simple yet complex: how can we explain the acknowledged importance of path-dependence while allowing for agents to step away...

This article examines the relevance of the two main theories used to understand business format franchising - resource scarcity theory and agency theory - for social venture franchising through an in-depth case study of one of the United Kingdom's first and most high-profile social franchises....

In this article we argue that the emergence of a new form of organisation - community enterprise - provides an alternative mechanism for corporations to behave in socially responsible ways. Community enterprises are distinguished from other third sector organisations by their generation of...