Innovation in the small business can be conceived of as a management process and challenge that can fundamentally affect business performance. This process, when mapped, offers a framework that can be used to encourage and enhance successful innovation management. The paper outlines an...

China’s rapid growth in recent decades can be attributed in large part to the emergence of a vibrant private sector, which now accounts for around three quarters of the economy. Despite government pronouncements in support of private small businesses, public policy and institutions to support...

The private sector is becoming an increasingly important part of the Chinese economy. This has been recognized in the SME Promotion Law of 2003, which provides a policy rationale for public support for small and medium enterprises operating in the private sector. One aspect of government support...

Although best practice transfer methodologies have become an increasingly common instrument in enterprise policy development, barriers to the exchange and dissemination of knowledge may limit their effectiveness. Using START, an EC-funded network of regional agencies, as a case this paper...

We explore patterns of take-up of Business Link services in Northamptonshire, a county in the East Midlands region of the UK. Our findings indicate a relationship between small firm growth and use of Business Link. The results suggest that newer firms that are larger and experiencing growth are...

Although there is broad recognition amongst policymakers of the significance of new business start-ups to the economy, there is an ongoing debate in the research literature as to the feasibility and desirability of intervention at this stage of business development. Of particular concern is the...

The role of clusters and clustering in economic development is of current policy interest, in part because of analyses and studies that have associated these forms of collaboration with regional and local prosperity and development. Although some of the literature supports or starts from this...