Business Link is a government-financed support body for small firms in England in which local franchisees provide a range of business advice services. Franchisees must act as independent bodies with the franchise as their 'only line of business'. Yet franchisees are of various types: some are de...

The process of journal publishing is under unprecedented pressure and external scrutiny in Britain. This is in part the result of research assessment exercises for academics, but also the rapid development of e-publishing, and perhaps erosion of the traditional moral suasion that has underpinned...

I examine the evolution of British government support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), using results from four waves of survey evidence in 1991, 1997, 2002, and 2004, and comparison with other analyses. Whilst government support is often based on overcoming market failures in the...