Ethnic Minority Business Policy in the Era of the Small Business Service

10.1068/c0050 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monder Ram ◽  
David Smallbone
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Business ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Socioeconomic Differences ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Business Support

The advent of the Small Business Service (SBS) has been accompanied by a renewed interest in ethnic minority enterprise. The content, nature, and efficacy of engagement processes with ethnic minority business (EMB) are likely to be important criteria for the granting of local SBS franchises, if the support needs of EMBs are to be successfully identified and responded to in the light of community and socioeconomic differences. This imperative has thrown into sharp relief unarticulated assumptions upon which policy towards EMBs has been, or should be, constituted. A review of these policy questions, and an assessment of the way forward, is long overdue. This is the key aim of the paper. In addressing this task, the authors draw upon a range of recent and ongoing studies of different facets of EMB activity, focusing in particular on the policy dimension. The discussion is divided into three main sections. First, there is an assessment of the support needs of EMBs. A key question is the extent to which such businesses are distinct from the general small firm population; and whether differences can be attributed to other factors, such as size and sector. This issue has implications for the delivery of business services; in particular, should services be delivered within existing ‘mainstream’ business support institutions, or through agencies predicated upon notions of ethnic differentiation? Second, issues and lessons from previous policy initiatives are considered. In particular, the role of specialist agencies, urban regeneration initiatives, and business-led organisations are assessed. After considering issues emerging from extant studies, part three identifies elements for a more coherent policy towards EMBs. Such a policy should include: clearer objectives; placing support EMBs within mainstream provision; an engagement strategy; closer integration between business support and regeneration policies; better access to finance; and more client-focused business support.

Street-Level Technocracy in UK Small Business Support: Business Links, Personal Business Advisers, and the Small Business Service

10.1068/c0112 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Mole
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Support Service ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Business Support ◽  
The Uk

The broad focus of this paper is the divergence of implemented policy from intended policy in UK small business support. The Small Business Service (SBS) is the United Kingdom's most recent attempt to provide coherent support for small business. With its structure of local franchisees and multiagency partnerships, the SBS is part of the United Kingdom's Modernising Government agenda, which aims to provide ‘joined-up’ and responsive public services. However, it is not always easy for policymakers to execute new plans in the form in which they were intended. Street-level bureaucracies develop where those who implement complex policies amend them to make them easier to apply in practice. This paper investigates the UK Business Links' Personal Business Adviser (PBA) service. The paper draws on data from a focus group often PBAs and subsequent survey of the 175 PBAs in England and Wales conducted in summer 1998. The experience and tacit knowledge of PBAs provides the expertise for a bespoke support service to small businesses. Business advisers have both technical expertise and closeness to delivery that confers the power to amend small business policy. This tacit knowledge confers powers akin to a ‘street-level technocracy’. Thus, policies that do not carry PBA support, such as targeting, are unlikely to be implemented effectively. A new approach to small business support has been formed from the difficulty in controlling PBAs through performance indicators, which appear to have distorted the intended policy, and the Modernising Government agenda. The new SBS devolves the operation, but not all control, of business advice from the national SBS to local Business Links. PBAs will play a major part in the network mode of governance of the new SBS franchisees.

Small Business Policy in the United Kingdom: The Inheritance of the Small Business Service and Implications for its Future Effectiveness

10.1068/c0113 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Curran ◽  
David J Storey
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Evaluation Approaches

The launch of the Small Business Service in the United Kingdom stimulated a review of small business policy and support in the United Kingdom. The Service inherited a substantial number of policies and initiatives which have been criticised for their poorly stated aims and overall lack of coherence. The authors examine justifications for small business policy in Britain and the role of research in small business policymaking. They suggest that research has had relatively little impact, and some reasons why this has been the case. They also suggest ways of setting a small business research agenda—raising standards and ensuring the independence of research. Attention is given to the evaluation of small business policy and initiatives. It is argued that currently this is not sufficiently independent or rigorous, and the authors suggest remedies. Both quantitative and qualitative evaluation approaches are examined in order to redefine good practice. The overall aim is to suggest how the Small Business Service can be better supported by research and evaluation, enabling it to function more successfully than its predecessors.

ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION AND SPECIFICITY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN RUSSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
R. V. MEDVEDEV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Federal Programs ◽  
State Support ◽  
Private Initiative ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Business Support ◽  
Corporate Venture ◽  
Venture Financing

The author's generalization of the practice of state support for small and medium-sized businesses through legal acts, federal programs, national projects is presented. The analysis of the role of specialized funds for support of development and financing of innovations in terms of supporting innovative entrepreneurial initiatives is given. In article are summarized based on surveys and expert opinions, the main results of the development business’s system in Russia. The main problems of small business support through private initiative, accelerators and the formation of business alliances with the help of corporate venture financing are identified.

Ethnic Minority Business Support in the West Midlands: Challenges and Developments

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monder Ram ◽  
Kiran Trehan ◽  
John Rouse ◽  
Kassa Woldesenbet ◽  
Trevor Jones
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Business ◽  
The West ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
Business Support

scholarly journals How do age and location affect a business? Evaluating the objectives, outputs and outcomes of small business policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Menisha Moos ◽  
Melodi Botha
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Business Support

Many scholars have dedicated their studies to understanding the kind of assistance given to small business. Likewise, numerous studies have concentrated on how government in particular, through a small business policy, can be instrumental in providing business support. This article evaluates South Africa‘s small business policy by concentrating on its objectives, outputs and outcomes. Studies evaluating small business policy according to its objectives, outputs and outcomes, have been limited. Such policy evaluation goes beyond merely reporting to understanding why certain phenomena take place. As an emerging economy, South Africa is in dire need of well-developed policies. This article proposes that understanding the link between small business policy and the age and location of a business may help government to refine policy formulation and design. Using a survey method and cross-sectional research design, the sample size of 340 respondents consisted of start-up and established business owners. This study found that not the age of the business, but only its location (the metropolitan municipality where the business is located) has a statistically significant effect on the objectives, outputs and outcomes of the small business policy. These findings should assist both national and international policymakers to identify specific context-bound interventions relevant to the location of businesses with a view to improving them.

Business Service Offices in British Provincial Cities: Location and Control

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 1101-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
P W Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
External Control ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
New Firm ◽  
Set Up ◽  
And Control

There are only a few studies of business service activities and most have concentrated on the behaviour of these activities in large cities. By taking a wider cross section of urban areas, this study explores some possible sources of variation in the role of business services in local economies with particular reference to the location and control of these services. Low-growth cities with a large proportion of their business services under external control show a limited amount of new-firm formation since indigenous firms are outnumbered by about two to one. Nonindigenous firms are significantly more likely to set up new branches or to relocate existing ones. The ratio of indigenous to nonindigenous business services in each urban area is significant for the location, status, function, and other changes reported by establishments. Many of these changes are a response to market adjustment or a need to ‘colonize’ new areas. The types of change, particularly of location, are also significantly related to office function. Provincial business services have shown a propensity to expand their employment, but this may only reflect the general trend since 1975. The role of London as the location of headquarters controlling provincial business services is far from dominant.

The Role of Business-Service Offices in the Economy of Medium-Sized Cities

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 669-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
J H J van Dinteren
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
External Control ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Indigenous Development ◽  
Information Circulation

In the Netherlands over the last fifteen years business-service activities have decentralized towards the intermediate provinces and the regions around the large cities in the west. A survey, based on postal questionnaires, was conducted to analyze this sector in thirteen medium-sized cities in the intermediate provinces. Work in this paper centers on the role of the business-service offices in the urban economy. From Pred's information-circulation theory it is argued that this role can be demonstrated by the following measures: the amount of local inputs, the degree of external control, the size of regional exports, and the size of the business-service sector (both in terms of employment and establishments). It is demonstrated that business services are not so reliant on a local market and on the manufacturing sector as has been assumed formerly. However, there are differences between the different types of offices. In a consideration of the role of business services in the economy of medium-sized cities it is shown that there are important variations between the cities studied. Initial advantages, the region in which the city is situated, planning policies, and the nature of the market are some factors accounting for the variations. Given the strong degree of regional export orientation, the intermediate function of business services and their recent and possible future growth, these results suggest that regional and urban policies, which in the Netherlands concentrate on stimulating indigenous development opportunities in the cities and regions themselves, need to reexamine the role of business services in the economy.

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