Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development: Volume 11 Issue 4

Entrepreneurship and human capital: distilling models of local economic growth to inform policy

Paul Plummer, Michael Taylor

The aim of this paper is to engage with the translation and linking of the “scientific knowledge” of theory on local economic growth with the “practical knowledge” of, on the one…

Entrepreneurs' attitudes to training and support initiatives: evidence from Ireland and The Netherlands

Diarmuid De Faoite, Colette Henry, Kate Johnston, Peter van der Sijde

Increasingly, academics, practitioners and governments recognise the need to examine the role and effectiveness of entrepreneurship training and support. Studies to date have…

Employer characteristics and employee training outcomes in UK SMEs: a multivariate analysis

David Devins, Steve Johnson, John Sutherland

Workforce development is becoming a higher priority for government, both as a means of addressing social exclusion and raising competitiveness. However there is limited evidence…

Is the training train out of control? A case of evaluation failure from New Zealand

Claire Massey

There is a noticeable absence of robust debate over the decision to deliver free or subsidised training programmes to those running small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), Many…

The influence of human capital attributes in microenterprise training

Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau

This article compares the educational background and years of work experience of students entering a Microenterprise Training Institute (MTI) program. Hypotheses were developed…

Changing HRM practices with firm growth

Bernice Kotey, Alison Sheridan

Despite common perceptions about the informality of human resource management (HRM) practices within small firms, few studies have considered how HRM practices change with firm…

The impact of employment regulation on the employment relationship in SMEs

Carol Atkinson, Susan Curtis

Reports findings from an empirical investigation into the nature of the employment relationship in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this is affected by the…

Job satisfaction survey among employees in small businesses

Grace Davis

This study applied Job Descriptive Index (JDI) to measure job attitudes among approximately 80 employees of four different small businesses. Through a standardized procedure, each…

Contemporary training initiatives in Britain: a small business perspective

Harry Matlay

This article focuses upon six recent training initiatives in Britain, all of which included a small business training remit. It evaluates the training impact of these initiatives…

HRD in Small Organisations: Research and Practice

Harry Matlay