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.

Evaluating the Prince's Trust's Young People's Business Start-up Programme, 1994–1999

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-81
Author(s):  
Stratis Koutsoukos ◽  
John Shutt ◽  
John Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Start Up ◽  
The Uk

The authors were the principals in the evaluation of the Prince's Trust's Young People's Business Start-up Programme, 1994–1999, as it operated nationally in the UK and in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. In this paper they report the methodologies used in the evaluation and the key findings. They then use their reflections on both the research process and its outcomes to comment on small business policy.

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.

Experiential Internships: Understanding the Process of Student Learning in Small Business Internships

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 357-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Varghese ◽  
Loran Carleton Parker ◽  
Omolola Adedokun ◽  
Monica Shively ◽  
Wilella Burgess ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Cognitive Apprenticeship ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Entrepreneurial Skills ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Apprenticeship Model

This qualitative study examines the process of student learning in a small-business experiential internship programme that pairs highly qualified undergraduates with local small or start-up companies. The Cognitive Apprenticeship model developed by Collins et al (1991) was used to conceptualize students' reported experiences. The results revealed that the internship structure allowed students to acquire knowledge successfully from experts in the field, situate their learning in the environment of practice, and learn valuable professional and entrepreneurial skills not found in traditional classroom settings. Students reported an increase in self-efficacy and indicated that their interests in working in a small business were solidified or further enhanced. It is argued that these findings have important implications for researchers, small business owners and entrepreneurial and small business support initiatives in higher education.

Entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial network, government business support and SMEs performance. The moderating role of the external environment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Buba Musa Pulka ◽  
Azahari Ramli ◽  
Armanurah Mohamad
Keyword(s):  
Entrepreneurial Orientation ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Support ◽  
Entrepreneurial Competencies ◽  
Multistage Sampling ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the moderating influence of the external environment on the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial network, government business support and SMEs performance. The objectives of the study are achieved using the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory.Design/methodology/approachThe survey method of research was used by personally administering questionnaires to the respondents. Multistage sampling techniques are used in selecting 470 SMEs owners/managers that participated in the survey. SPSS 24 and PLS-SEM 3.0 were used in the analysis of the data.FindingsIn the Nigerian context, the findings indicated that EC, EO and GBS directly influence the SMEs performance. Surprisingly, SMEs performance is not influenced by EN. Similarly, EE significantly moderated the relationship between EC, GBS and SMEs performance. On the contrary, EE does not have any moderating influence on the relationship between EO, EN and SMEs performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to northeastern Nigeria. The study is limited to the EC, EO, EN GBS EE and SMEs performance and the use of cross-sectional data. The findings imply that SMEs owners/managers need a high level of entrepreneurial competencies and government business support to achieve a better performance especially in an external environment that is characterised by dynamism, diversity, complexity and hostility. Hence, providing support for both RBV and DCT.Practical implicationsThus, the study offers additional empirical evidence from Nigeria and also expands knowledge and understanding in this field. The findings offer owners/managers, government agencies, financial institutions and other stakeholders of SMEs strategies EC, EO, GBS and EE to achieve a better SMEs performance.Originality/valueThe conceptual framework of the study is unique, and the study was conducted in northeastern Nigeria which is grossly underrepresented in the literature. It also provided understanding on the moderating influence of EE on the framework.

Factors of Small Business Mentoring and Practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-114
Author(s):  
Brajaballav Kar ◽  
Subrat Sarangi
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Business Failure ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
Process Outcomes ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations

Mentoring is essential when we consider the socio-economic profile of small business owners and the considerable rate of business failure. Entrepreneurs are independent as well as innovative by nature, and they may not like to discuss their confidential business issues with a third party. On the other hand, a mentor has to understand, help, support and improve overall aspects of the mentee’s business. Thus, mentoring entrepreneurs seems to be inherently contradictory. The function of the mentor and the mentoring process outcomes are not precisely understood. The argument ‘Mentoring is what a mentor does’ indicates the lack of clarity. This research uses a semi-structured interview and survey method to understand the mentoring process in practice. The perceptions and expectations of mentors and small business owners are analysed. Findings indicate that mentors are more likely to underestimate the outcomes of the mentoring process compared to mentees. The appropriate experience and expertise of the mentor are considered more important in the mentoring process. There are no significant differences in the perceptions between mentors and business owners regarding mentoring contribution to marketing, finance and people management skills. Factor analysis for the 15 variables used in the scale suggests 6 factors such as capacity building, connect, chronemics, collaboration, concreteness and trust (5Cs and 1T) to be critical mentoring outcomes. The article contributes to small business owners, mentoring practitioners and funding agencies by clarifying the relationship among various factors involved in mentoring. The article also discusses the future agenda for research on small business mentoring.

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.

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