Every business starts somewhere and theres no limit to how far it can go! was the message that Dr Gul-Nawaz Khan Akbar, the Managing Director of Mumtaz Food Industries Ltd, one of the UKs leading Asian companies in food manufacturing delivered to Leeds Met staff and students at yesterday...

This paper aims to understand the ways bio-tech entrepreneurs interact to in their networking activities. We are specifically interested in if, and how, virtual network interactions enhance collaborative incremental innovation in supplier-customer networks. Employing a phenomenological approach,...

This paper presents new insights into the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in vertical inter-firm relationships. It adopts a processual and resource-based perspective and focuses on the experiences of fresh produce businesses which have achieved high rates of growth...

This study constitutes an appraisal of the theory relating to Relationship Marketing (RM) and its application to vertical channel, business-to-business relationships. Specific reference is made to the fresh produce (fruit, vegetables and salads) sector of the agri-food industry. The study...

It is the dream of many would-be entrepreneurs to slide seamlessly from their pursuit of a favourite hobby into the establishment and operation of a business based on their favourite pastime. The creative industries, including arts and crafts, designer fashion, film, theatre and the performing...

Electronic commerce has such well documented advantages that if a business does not engage in doing so, one must question the wisdom of management. Abstract The major growth in this transition will be from established 'bricks and mortar' businesses, where 'going online' appears relatively...

Objectives The production of innovation or novelty in creative interactions is normally represented in research either as normative patterns of behaviour (being creative) or as post-hoc empirical objects (new firms, new products etc.) The structure of creative practices, i.e. what particular...

In the digital economy, the creative industries revolve around dynamic, innovative and often unorthodox collaborations between individuals and organisations. Large, small and micro-businesses often come together for the duration of a project, then disband and form new partnerships for the next...

Standard explanations of the decisions made by new firm founders when acquiring financing to start ventures tend to refer to the efficiency and economic rationales underpinning such choices. In this paper, a pecking order approach is applied to twenty-six cases of new venture creation to test...

This chapter reflects on ongoing research in SMEs in the manufacturing and service sectors. It contrasts different approaches to the issue of preparedness from an organisational and social perspective, in two cases where new enterprise-wide business processes were implemented and integrated in...