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This regional survey involved 90 small manufacturing firms over the three‐year period, 1997‐2000. Ninety face‐to‐face interviews using a personal, open, unstructured approach were conducted in 90 cluster‐located small manufacturing (engineering) firms with up to 50 employees (but with 75 per cent below 20 staff) in the Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire region. Selected follow‐up discussions also occurred during the three‐year period. The objectives of the undertaking were: to identify the key factors in the profiles of small firm owner‐managers that influence business performance; and to contribute to the body of knowledge in this area. The full report comprised some 43,000 words and this paper can only be a mere summary of an investigation of immense scope and complexity.

In an update to an article in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 21 No. 2, 1989, the problem of training within small firms is reconsidered. The results of data collected during 1988‐1990 from a survey of small mechanical and electrical engineering firms in the Solent region reflect the firms′ attitudes towards training. The lack or low level of any kind of training is emphasised and it is concluded that persistent neglect of this area reduces firms′ abilities to compete with other larger organisations and could be severely detrimental as 1992 approaches.

Two British surveys are examined which show skills shortages in smaller companies. The reasons why little training is undertaken in these firms are set out, the main one of which seems to be that they are focused entirely on short‐term survival.

This international survey involved 11 countries and was led and financed by Groupe ESC Rennes. The University of Portsmouth Business School headed the UK research programme. Business Link Hampshire and the University of Portsmouth also financially supported the UK work. Five sectors were investigated: construction, industry, retailing, services and transport. Some 800 mailed questionnaires were returned from SMEs (small and medium enterprises) from cluster locations throughout the UK. The objective of the undertaking was to identify the key factors in the profiles of SME owner‐managers that influence business performance and to contribute to the literature. The following are the findings.

During the period 1990‐94 a survey of small firms′ attitudes to training was undertaken in south coast Hampshire. Key personnel in a sample of 48 firms with up to 100 staff were all interviewed. The results revealed that effective training was not high on the agenda of priorities. Training awareness far exceeded the application. Training was regarded as an expense rather than an investment. The smaller firm′s persistent neglect of this area of management could prove to be one of the major problems of the late 1990s.

Examines output determination in a sample of 50 small engineering firms with up to 100 employees in the Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire region during 1992‐1997. Face‐to‐face interviews using a personal, open, unstructured approach were conducted in all firms with selected follow‐up discussions during the five‐year period. The findings indicate disconcerting problems of output determination within the sample. As a result of non‐optimum approaches to output determination displayed by the firms, financial returns will inevitably tend to remain disappointing for the small engineering firm. Seeks to provide all those interested in the promotion of business activity in the small firm sector, such as industry itself, higher education, government departments, the advisory bodies, consultants and local authorities, with a clearer appreciation of the real motivations and weaknesses behind output decision making.

Suggests, with statistics, that a substantial part of any software development budget is spent on revisions and maintenance. Argues that systems are long overdue to measure the quality of software applications rather than focusing on the quality of the procedures and management approach. Feels the quest for software quality must not be held up by standards debates or management philosophies and that investment in CASE tools or 4GLs, though valuable, simply puts the majority of software budgets into areas where the smallest productivity improvements are to be made. Arguest that as only a tiny percentage of the money spent on software tools is devoted to products for application testing, yet test and maintenance consume over half the development effort, it is time this imbalance was rectified.

This paper uses case study data to explore the potential of Human Resource Management (HRM) within small firms. It is argued that despite a considerable amount of evidence that emphasises the distinct human resource problems that small firms face because of their size, there is no reason to assume a priori that a formalised HRM approach cannot provide solutions to these — provided that it is sufficiently flexible. The article cautions against accepting the ‘informal’ approach to managing people often associated with small firms as an inevitable or unconditional ‘good’, demonstrating the complexities of small firm employment relations through case studies of four small firms that have adopted the Investors In People initiative. This initiative is shown to embody key principles of HRM thinking and to have provided viable answers to the human resource problems faced by the case companies. The article concludes with a discussion of the issues that will need to be faced if the management of human resources in small firms is to be opened up to new and innovative ideas in a manner that is genuinely constructive and beneficial.

This article is an account of Huniberside Leisure Services' computerised approach to the problem of locating songs in score collections.

In 1986 a study was carried out in a number of small companies in the UK that manufacture to customer requirements. The primary objective was to assess the relevance and importance to industry of ideas developed in earlier research at Lancaster University, relating the order quotation process to production and sales. However, in the course of the study a great deal was learnt about the industrial sectors examined.