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The paper seeks to explore the importance of a sample of New Zealand farmers' markets in providing a supportive setting for the take‐off as well as the decline stage of the small business life cycle, with a view to identifying factors that may enhance rural small business survivability.

The task was achieved by use of a combination of interviews and case studies. A list of new generation farmers' markets was compiled. Managers from four of these markets were interviewed to identify the possible existence of businesses that had been fostered by, but had now outgrown, the market. Four incubated businesses were selected from one of the longer established markets. From a more recently established market, 18 stallholders were selected for examination of their attitudes towards the market as a nurturing environment in relation to the life‐cycle stage of the business. Data were analysed using qualitative techniques of theme identification and analysis.

It was found that farmers' markets can have a role as small business incubators and safety nets, thus enhancing the survival chances of rural small businesses. This may be particularly useful where dwindling government subsidies and growing supermarket power result in declining incomes and reduced outlets for small‐scale farmers and rural producers.

The research findings are limited by the non‐random nature of the sampling procedure. In such an exploratory study, the main emphasis was on establishing the existence of the incubator and safety net functions. Further research is needed to establish the extent of these roles.

The research investigates a relatively unique setting of an unsubsidised agricultural sector.

Farmers' markets have provided new alternatives for small producers to obtain direct distribution to consumers over the past few years. The growth has been spectacular in several countries and this paper aims to understand this growth and how value might be created by looking at participation and cooperation amongst the traders at these markets.

A survey of farmers' market members was undertaken and findings are reported with descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis to profile aspects of cooperation amongst stallholders.

Over 80 per cent of the traders at the markets were involved in some form of cooperative activity, reinforcing the idea of markets as community‐based activities with high levels of interdependence amongst participants. Cooperation could be identified in different categories and increased over the length of time trading at the market but could not be directly related to performance or the reasons traders offered for doing business at the market.

The research was designed as an exploratory study and provides potential issues for further research as opposed to testing particular hypotheses.

The categorisation of cooperation methods offers traders ways in which they might seek to more formally organise joint efforts. Monitoring the degree of cooperation between traders and linking to performance would also provide the organisers of markets with a potential way of managing aspects of competitive advantage against competing food retailers.

This is the first paper to examine value creation and cooperation in this context and it provides a potential base for working towards sustainable competitive advantage for farmers' markets.

This paper seeks to explore the rationale for, and development of, farmers' markets in New Zealand. The paper is based on and extends previous industry reports.

The research in this paper is viewed in the context of the dominance of globalised business in the food production and retailing process. Semi‐structured interviews and case studies were used to elicit the opinions, perceptions and attitudes of market managers, producers/growers, and customers.

It was found in the paper that farmers' markets provide additional outlets for entrepreneurial small‐scale farmers and producers, alternatives for consumers, and opportunities for communities, while their rapid growth is presenting challenges for some large competitors.

The paper finds that farmers' markets may be an important harbinger of the second industrial revolution where there is renewed respect for those small‐scale producers who meet the needs of discerning consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to show how a systematic approach and supporting tools can support the development of a quality culture, and align cultural change with process improvement goals.

The paper describes the development and deployment of a systematic approach to developing a quality culture, achieved through a structured approach to mentoring and supporting learning techniques including algorithmic matching of mentors to mentees and a structured mentoring journey built around goals and milestones.

A structured approach to mentoring can deliver significant enhancements to a quality culture, complementing structured approaches to process improvement allowing alignment of cultural and process goals.

The approach has been applied in a relatively small number of organisations (eight) at the time of writing.

The use of a structured approach to learning enables establishment of a quality culture to be part of a structured quality plan.