During the last three decades, thanks to the efforts of J. Schumpeter, G. Stigler, M. Blaug, P. Schwartz, T.W. Hutchison and others, a revaluation of the contribution of John…
Abstract
During the last three decades, thanks to the efforts of J. Schumpeter, G. Stigler, M. Blaug, P. Schwartz, T.W. Hutchison and others, a revaluation of the contribution of John Stuart Mill to the history of economic doctrines in general and to that of economic analysis in particular has taken place on a quite significant scale. The basic portrayal of J.S. Mill as an unoriginal and incoherent writer which prevailed from about the time of his death till around the middle of the present century came to be seriously and, one may say, successfully challenged. While the “eclecticism” of Mill was traditionally emphasised with a pejorative tone, no less than M. Blaug concluded that in the final analysis, it “worked to Mill's advantage” and that “the multiplicity of analytical ideas, often running in opposite directions, opened the way to subsequent refinement and development” (Blaug, 1968, p. 220). The theoretical inventiveness of J.S. Mill was stressed in still louder terms by G. Stigler when he wrote that “he was one of the most original economists in the history of the science” (Stigler, 1955, p. 7).
This study aims to investigate whether “small- and medium-sized enterprises” (SMEs) benefit from their external accountants’ business advice through enhanced firm performance…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate whether “small- and medium-sized enterprises” (SMEs) benefit from their external accountants’ business advice through enhanced firm performance. Most SMEs draw on external support, and their main advisors are external accountants (Bennett and Robson, 1999). The resource-based view of the firm suggests that firms will seek external support if they perceive a gap in their internal resources.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a questionnaire mailed to a random sample of Australian SMEs, defined as businesses having between 5 and 200 full-time employees.
Findings
An analysis of 380 survey respondents confirms a positive relationship between the voluntary purchase of business advice and SME performance, and that SME performance is further enhanced when business advice is purchased jointly with auditing. These relationships apply to the small (5-49 employees) but not to the medium-sized (50-200 employees) businesses. Findings are consistent with smaller firms having narrower resource bases and thus a greater need to source business advice.
Practical implications
The accounting profession has long encouraged a broadening of its service base, and evidence that small businesses perceive a performance benefit from their accountants’ business advice provides support for the profession’s strategy.
Originality/value
This research extends the empirical literature investigating the link between the business advice of an external accountant and SME performance. It explains small firms’ demand for business advice by extending the application of the resource-based view of the firm and provides new evidence consistent with “knowledge spillover” from auditing to business advice in the small firm environment.
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The paper questions aspects of the UK government’s policy to target small firm support on fast‐growing firms – to maximise its employment impact. The paper explores the tension…
Abstract
The paper questions aspects of the UK government’s policy to target small firm support on fast‐growing firms – to maximise its employment impact. The paper explores the tension between advice likely to increase growth and risk‐taking and advice likely to ensure firm survival in the turbulent small and medium‐sized enterprises sector. The research data derive from 24 semi‐structured interviews and a group interview of ten business advisers in the West Midlands region collected between autumn 1996 and spring 1997, and a national survey of 175 Business Link personal business advisers (PBAs) conducted in April 1998. Interviewees responded to a prompt asking for advice to a fast‐growing firm. The paper compares qualitative interview responses from a wide variety of West Midlands business advisers with questionnaire responses from PBAs. The paper suggests that the advice given by accountants and bank managers differs little from that given by Business Link’s PBAs. The paper will argue that advisers including PBAs, offer risk‐averse advice and support to small firms. Present business advice might reduce insolvency rather than increase the number of fast‐growth firms. The risk‐averse nature of advice, reflecting the adviser’s clientele, undermines policies designed to increase the number of fast‐growth companies. It concludes that advice will often be inconsistent with the growth‐oriented aim of government policy.
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As a generalisation, the sports industry is a multifaceted, complex and diverse industry, perhaps making it difficult to offer business support and advice. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
As a generalisation, the sports industry is a multifaceted, complex and diverse industry, perhaps making it difficult to offer business support and advice. This paper aims to identify and analyse, through sport and recreation business owners, their experience of business support and advice. The study can therefore be seen as contributing to related studies by Mole et al. and responding to Pawson and Tilley's request for a more nuanced view of how public‐support programmes work.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, collective case study design is adopted. Three in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with Directors of Sport Businesses were undertaken to identify business support in the West Midlands Sports sector. Interviews focused on business development, the support and advice directors received and the future direction of their business. Interviews were analysed using inductive and deductive content analysis.
Findings
The findings from the case studies highlight a variety of general support and advice mechanisms, e.g. Women's Business Development Agency, with differences in regional provision evident. One strong emerging theme indicates that specialised business support occurs which appears critical but ad hoc.
Originality/value
This paper considers the specific business support needs in a largely unreported, yet growing sports sector (based upon a demand led inquiry) into existing providers and business recipients. These findings are pertinent for various organisations such as policy makers, small business support agencies, as well as sports businesses themselves; as they seek to both identify specific sector support needs and evaluate existing practice.
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This paper examines William Stanley Jevons’s approach to human “improvement” in comparison with that of Carl Menger. In Jevons’s view, people are relatively static when left to…
Abstract
This paper examines William Stanley Jevons’s approach to human “improvement” in comparison with that of Carl Menger. In Jevons’s view, people are relatively static when left to their own devices. Thus, to “attack” the “citadel of poverty” they must be improved by those who know what is “best” for them. Menger’s view of people as planners, by contrast, is one in which people are capable of improving themselves. Jevons was a social reformer who placed great faith in education, and painful training and instruction, broadly defined, as key mechanisms of reform. Less frequently acknowledged but no less important, Menger also foresaw “the improvement of mankind” from within, as consumers came to better understand how best to attain their wants and needs over time.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources and use of social capital on small firm growth in an emerging economy. The study also examines the relationship between small…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources and use of social capital on small firm growth in an emerging economy. The study also examines the relationship between small firms’ human capital, internal resources and strategy on social capital sources used, and their impact on small firms’ growth in employment.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses logistics regression and structural equation modelling to analyse data gathered from 441 small firms located in six regions of Ghana where approximately 81 per cent of all businesses are found.
Findings
Among the 16 sources of social capital examined, customers were found to be the most used source and the only social capital source that showed significant statistical association with firm growth in employment. Also, the study revealed that human capital, firm resources and strategy variables such as educational level of the owner-manager, firm size, location, firm involvement in internalisation and innovation are statistically significant with social capital sources such as accountants, banks, solicitors, business associates and chamber of commerce.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the study have implications for policy and practice in situations where government and private sector institutions mandated to support enterprise development appear to be the least social capital sources used by small firms. The findings also provide a better understanding of the use and impact of social capital sources on small firm growth in an emerging economy in Africa.
Originality/value
This study appears to be the first known research on small firms’ social capital that has examined 16 different social capital sources and shown how human capital, internal resources and firm strategy have influenced the use of social capital sources by small firms in an emerging economy.
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Kristine Kuhn, Tera Galloway and Maureen Collins-Williams
The purpose of this paper is to examine small business owners’ informal advice-seeking from peers, with a focus on the opportunities afforded by the internet for owners to acquire…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine small business owners’ informal advice-seeking from peers, with a focus on the opportunities afforded by the internet for owners to acquire assistance from other owner-managers outside their local community.
Design/methodology/approach
Over 600 owner-managers in a rural US state were surveyed about their advice-seeking during the previous year from peers in the same community, from non-local peers they had met in person, and from peers known only online. Mixed effects logistic regression analysis was used to test both main effects of business and owner characteristics on advice-seeking and interactions with type/location of peer advisors.
Findings
Most owners had received advice from peers, and one-third had received advice online from a peer whom they had never met in person. Business performance was not associated with overall use of peer advice, but did interact significantly with source; the use of online-only advisors was associated with business growth, suggesting the possible benefit of weak ties. Over two-thirds of respondents reported having used social media and/or online forums to access advice or support from other owners (both those met in person and those not), with women and younger owners more likely to rely on such tools.
Originality/value
This study shows that entrepreneurial research needs to consider peer advisors beyond local networks as potential resources for small business owners. While previous research has examined entrepreneurs’ use of social media for marketing, this study shows its utility for accessing advice.
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Matthew J. Robson, Dionysis Skarmeas and Stavroula Spyropoulou
The aim of this study is to provide a methodical, analytical, and focused review of international strategic alliance (ISA) studies examining empirically behavioral attributes'…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to provide a methodical, analytical, and focused review of international strategic alliance (ISA) studies examining empirically behavioral attributes' performance outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study centers on an integrative analysis of 41 studies investigating the performance relevance of behavioral attributes. After developing a conceptual framework, which included two categories of these attributes – relationship capital (i.e. trust and commitment) and exchange climate (i.e. cooperation, communication, and conflict reduction) – the methodologies of the studies were profiled and their empirical findings aggregated. The accumulated effect of each behavioral attribute on performance and extent to which this effect varies in relation to ISA geographic location and type and study operating period was examined.
Findings
The review suggests that while there are direct links between behavioral aspects and alliance performance, the strength of these varies across the two categories. Of the relationship capital and exchange climate aspects, commitment and cooperation, respectively, prove most consistently positively linked to performance. Still, the results for all the behavioral attributes appear more consistent when taking the study context into consideration.
Research limitations/implications
Empirical research on behavioral attributes' links to alliance performance is still at an early stage of development and assertions concerning relationship management offering the key to ISA success are somewhat premature. Improvements need to be made in terms of conceptualizations, research designs, and analytical techniques used if the field is to build concrete theory on the subject.
Practical implications
It would appear that the behavioral paradigm can be relied on to pay‐off in alliances involving only DC partner firms and/or a cooperative agreement structure, but should be applied more cautiously and selectively in LDC‐DC and/or formal joint venture partnerships.
Originality/value
This is the first review exercise focused on providing fine‐grained insights covering the complexity of the burgeoning literature on the behavioral paradigm's performance relevance in ISAs.