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Much has been written, in recent years, on the subject of learning organisations and knowledge‐based businesses. Most research in this area, however, focuses upon large businesses. In this type of firm, it appears the concepts of “organisational learning” and “learning organisation” can be, and often are, used interchangeably to describe learning‐based individual and collective development. Until recently, issues relating to organisational learning in small businesses were mostly ignored or marginalised. This paper sets out to redress the balance. It reports a study of organisational learning in the small business sector of the UK economy. Research data, collected over the 1996‐1998 period, through telephone surveys, in‐depth interviews and case studies, were analysed through quantitative and qualitative methods. The results indicate that although learning can occur in the majority of small businesses in the sample, only a minority of these manage new knowledge strategically to sustain and advance their competitive advantage.

This paper is the second in a series of conceptual, contextual and empirical contributions that, individually and cumulatively, seek to analyse, develop and link two important fields of research: “entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneurship education”. Part 2 aims to provide a critical evaluation of entrepreneurship education and its impact upon graduate entrepreneurship in the UK.

A comprehensive literature review and a structured evaluation of current knowledge on topics related directly and indirectly to “entrepreneurship education” in the UK.

It appears that conceptual, contextual, design and delivery differences can have a considerable influence upon entrepreneurship education courses delivered in the UK. There are significant definitional as well as conceptual and contextual issues affecting the design of relevant programmes and the delivery of the chosen curriculum. Consequently, a number of actual and perceived barriers need to be overcome in order to facilitate a better understanding of stakeholder needs and learning patterns.

The evaluation and interpretation of relevant research results represent the author's own perception and experiences, and should therefore be viewed with caution. It is suggested that the content of this paper is subject to the usual bias and singular perspective generally attributable to “viewpoint” articles.

The paper measures the outcomes of entrepreneurship education is still proving difficult and inconclusive. More in‐depth research is needed on current UK entrepreneurship education provision and initiatives in order to gain a better understanding of the scope and limitations of a wide range of entrepreneurship education programmes.

This paper provides a critical evaluation of entrepreneurship education in the UK.

Contextualises a number of concerns related to the usage of National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications by both employers and employees in Britain. It provides an analysis of the main factors that are likely to affect the ways in which the newly formed Learning and Skills Council interacts with this well established, but controversial system of vocational qualifications.

The current push for small firms to be “wired up to the digital marketplace” is evidenced by the number of initiatives targeting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to promote this activity. Like other governments worldwide, UK Online’s SME targets (together with the supporting DTI adoption ladder) exemplify the “conventional wisdom” view of a homogeneous small business sector, within which firms take an ordered, sequential progression on the route to Internet technology adoption. This approach is questioned by grounding the official rhetoric in the reality of organisational and operational complexity of this important sector of the UK economy. These initiatives are compared and contrasted with similar models of small firm development, most of which neglected to address the diverse nature of small firm needs. The authors recommend a more discriminant approach, focused upon factors such as firm size, age, managerial structure and information and communications technology adoption stages.

Beginning with the 1970s, policy makers, academics and industrial commentators in Britain have increasingly focused their attention on the development of the domestic small business sector. The macro‐economic potential of this sector of the economy had progressively come to be viewed as the panacea to Britain’s “relative” economic decline. Very soon, however, it had become obvious that in comparison with those of other industrially developed nations, the British labour force was poorly educated and trained. This paper explores the dynamics of workplace training in the small business sector of the British economy. The study upon which this paper is based involved three complementary research methods. It included an investigative telephone survey during which attitudinal, sectoral and compositional data on training were collected from 2,000 randomly selected businesses from the West Midlands region of Great Britain. Although the vast majority of respondents claimed to hold positive attitudes to training, a large proportion of them admitted not to have provided any during the 12 months prior to the interviews. According to them, this apparent “training paradox” has its roots in a number of “directly” and “indirectly” relevant factors. Significantly, the vast majority of respondents felt that in recent years training policies in Britain lacked the necessary focus, coherence and continuity. A number of tentative recommendations are suggested, which could benefit the concerted efforts of the present Labour government directed at this important area of economic policy.

This article is the first in a series of conceptual and empirical contributions that, individually and cumulatively, seek to analyse, develop and link two important fields of research: “entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneurship education”.

The paper undertakes a critical literature review and a methodical evaluation of current knowledge on topics related directly and indirectly to “entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneurship education”.

A critical evaluation of the literature on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education has highlighted a number of definitional, conceptual and contextual weaknesses inherent in these two interrelated fields of research. Importantly, both fields of knowledge share similar definitional weaknesses and methodological inadequacies. The paper proposes an encompassing working definition of entrepreneurship (including intrapreneurship) and a basic typology of relevant entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activities. This converging approach combines the two units of analysis, i.e. the entrepreneur and/or the intrapreneur as well as the entrepreneurial and/or intrapreneurial firm. In terms of a basic typology, the paper recommends Westhead and Wright's suggestion that entrepreneurs can be categorised into three broad groups: “novice,” “serial,” and “portfolio,”. This “converging approach” to entrepreneurship would bridge the most obvious aspects of empirical discord and provide better comparative and more generalisable research.

The evaluation and interpretation of emergent results represent the author's own perceptions, experiences and biases – and should therefore be viewed with caution. Thus, this article is subject to the usual bias and singular perspective which is generally attributable to “viewpoint” articles.

The paper proposes an encompassing working definition of entrepreneurship and a basic typology of relevant entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activities.

In this article, three established small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises provide qualitative case study evidence of the extent to which information communications technology can be embedded within a firm’s marketing strategy, from the earliest adoption stages to the integration of the Internet with key business functions. These case studies also provide insights into the innovative ways that can be used to reposition a firm, its marketing strategy, services and products, both within the national and the global marketplace. Established firms, in addition to new businesses and industries, could gain considerable competitive advantage from Internet usage, if they can achieve the right mix of managerial capacity and marketing focus in terms of image, brand and customer needs. Their human resource base could allow such firms to “reinvent” themselves, mainly by effectively accessing and embedding new knowledge. It emerged that organisational culture facilitates and supports the wider access and application of new knowledge through organisational learning mechanisms.