Search results
1 – 10 of 84Those engaged in the Arts are becoming ever more concerned aboutprofessional management and are increasingly seeking management trainingprogrammes. During organisation and…
Abstract
Those engaged in the Arts are becoming ever more concerned about professional management and are increasingly seeking management training programmes. During organisation and planning skills training courses, it became apparent that there were many differences between the way arts managers approached the issues concerned, and the way others at other training events had dealt with them. These differences are described, together with the implications for both the training of arts managers and managers in general.
Details
Keywords
Martin Quinn and Richard Courtney
This chapter addresses two main questions; firstly, whether the public sector should seek to play an entrepreneurial role in its local economy and, secondly, what kinds of roles…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter addresses two main questions; firstly, whether the public sector should seek to play an entrepreneurial role in its local economy and, secondly, what kinds of roles it could undertake. This chapter addresses these questions through an engagement with Cooke and Morgan’s (1998) concept of the animateur. The chapter uses examples drawn from Leicester City Mayor’s 100 Days in office programme to illustrate how the public sector provides a ‘breath of life’ to defunct areas in the City’s built environment and its economic activity. In this way, the animateur is a mode of engagement appropriate to characterize public sector entrepreneurship.
Methodology/approach
The chapter takes a case study approach drawing on the author’s previous research in Leicester and current involvement in the governance structures in the City.
Findings
The chapter examines the ways in which the public sector may be seen to be ‘entrepreneurial’. It argues that while the public sector should be seen as a legitimate entrepreneur in local economic development, their focus should be on innovative use of space and infrastructure. Here the role of the public sector should be to provide the ‘urban plumbing’ that would not be a cost-effective role for the private sector to undertake. The chapter uses the example of Leicester in England where the public sector has attempted to use culture and heritage to drive economic development in the City. Here the City authorities used these industries as a mechanism for the physical regeneration of large parts of the City Centre and have created spaces for private sector enterprises to flourish. The chapter argues that the success here was due to the City Council and the LEP understanding their role in entrepreneurship as an enabler rather than driver.
Practical implications
Policy-makers need to better understand the role the public sector can play in local entrepreneurship. This role should not be restricted to physical regeneration projects as the public sector should also be an innovative leader in the governance of enterprise and entrepreneurship at the local and regional tiers.
Details
Keywords
Par un groupe d'experts français
Introduction Le tourisme qui fut d'abord le privilège de la classe riche au cours du XIXe siècle et qui se limita à la pratique de l'alpinisme, aux longs séjours d'été dans…
Abstract
Introduction Le tourisme qui fut d'abord le privilège de la classe riche au cours du XIXe siècle et qui se limita à la pratique de l'alpinisme, aux longs séjours d'été dans quelques stations thermales, lacustres, balnéaires ou montagnardes, aux séjours d'hiver sous les climats plus doux des bords de la Méditerranée, devint un phénomène de masse à partir de la deuxième guerre mondiale. La clientèle, les types de tourisme, les moyens de transports, les régions fréquentées se sont diversifiés et ont augmenté à un tel rythme et avec une telle ampleur que de nouvelles et nombreuses professions sont apparues.
Ivan Annibal, Joyce Liddle and Gerard McElwee
The key purpose of the paper is to consider the challenges facing local authorities in supporting sustainable rural settlements in their efforts to be enterprising and sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The key purpose of the paper is to consider the challenges facing local authorities in supporting sustainable rural settlements in their efforts to be enterprising and sustainable in confronted with increasingly severe downward pressure on local authority finances due to the recession; the long-term trend of increased adult social care costs linked to a challenging demographic profile across rural England; and increasing expectations around service delivery arising from more discerning “e-enabled” users of public services.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper offers a structured reflection on the responses of a qualitative study of village sustainability, based on case studies of the inhabitants of three villages in Lincolnshire, England. The paper draws on responses by 70 voices to a series of workshops held in village halls and pubs.
Findings
Significant work needs to be done at the local level, to support the transition from long-standing, organic practice within communities to the creation of an infrastructure which can support the delivery of more services by communities themselves.
Research limitations/implications
Workshop-based approaches to gathering responses can allow for biased responses, and this study is limited to the views of self-selecting actors in three villages.
Originality/value
The paper examines the barriers and opportunities facing local communities and introduces the concept of community to community learning.
Details
Keywords
Pendant l'année académique 1978–1979 nous avons effectué une étude sur l'emploi obtenu des élèves qui ont fait leurs études de technicien d'entreprises touristiques dans les…
Gary Bosworth, Gerard McElwee and Rob Smith
This paper aims to consider the challenges facing small rural businesses in Mexico in their efforts to be enterprising and sustainable when confronted with severe exogenous…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider the challenges facing small rural businesses in Mexico in their efforts to be enterprising and sustainable when confronted with severe exogenous pressures. Extant literature on farm diversification has a developed economy focus (Pyysiäinen et al., 2006; McElwee, 2008; McElwee and Smith, 2013), but relatively little has been published in developing economies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers diversification activities of Mexican farmers. It uses case studies, workshops and interviews to determine the barriers facing farmers and farm advisors.
Findings
Farm businesses, particularly those located in drought-prone regions, have benefited from government-sponsored support, but this support needs to now be targeted to develop the entrepreneurial potential of individuals and collectives.
Research limitations/implications
Carried out in one region of Mexico only, and thus, the findings may not be transferable to other regions.
Practical implications
Recruitment of well-qualified, honest farm advisors with entrepreneurial skills is necessary. Farmers need to be given additional training and support to develop both technological and entrepreneurial skills.
Social implications
Encouraging and supporting rural enterprises in Mexico helps to provide opportunities for regions to be economically and socially sustainable.
Originality/value
A first attempt to look at farmers ' diversification strategies using an entrepreneurial framework.
Details
Keywords
Gerard McElwee and Adrian Wood
The purpose of this paper is to explore enterprise diversification amongst wetland farmers in Zambia as a way of reducing poverty and improving sustainability. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore enterprise diversification amongst wetland farmers in Zambia as a way of reducing poverty and improving sustainability. This paper identifies ways in which such entrepreneurial activities can be supported and applied more widely.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study of Zambian farmers, based on a series of workshops and interviews held in Zambia with farmers and farm business advisers.
Findings
Despite adopting new technologies most farmers are restricted to the local market where their increased production holds down prices. However, a very small number of farmers are able to progress to production and marketing for markets in major urban centres hundreds of kilometres away, and considerably more are able to use the capital accumulated from wetland farming to diversify their household enterprises to reduce poverty and improve the sustainability and resilience of their livelihoods.
Originality/value
No work has previously been undertaken in diversification strategies of small-scale farmers in Zambia.
Details
Keywords
Socio‐economic decline in rural areas is a pervasive and debilitating phenomenon in terms of regional development, particularly when former models of economic growth which once…
Abstract
Purpose
Socio‐economic decline in rural areas is a pervasive and debilitating phenomenon in terms of regional development, particularly when former models of economic growth which once stimulated business generation and regeneration can no longer be counted on to do so. In these austere times, models of social and community enterprise are becoming more important. This corresponds to the emergence of theories of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise as explanatory variables. Such theories are used to label enterprising behaviour enacted within our communities, even when the theoretical arguments underpinning these re‐conceptualisations require to be stretched to permit this. Often the resultant explanations are not entirely convincing. The purpose of this paper is to challenge existing conceptualisations of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a case study methodology, the paper reports on the activities of the Buchan Development Partnership (BDP) – a community‐based project situated in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland – demonstrating how individual and community enterprise can be utilized to develop enterprising individuals and communities by growing enterprises organically. The case articulates this process, as it occurred in a rural development partnership using a narrative‐based case study methodology to examine activities and growth strategies.
Findings
The case bridges issues of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial process, community and regional development and tells a story of community regeneration through the process of “Community Animateurship”.
Research limitations/implications
Research, practical and social implications are discussed but in particular the need to adopt a more holistic “bottom up” approach.
Originality/value
This case challenges existing conceptualisations of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
Details
Keywords
Discusses the need to re‐examine the education and training systems for adaptability to issues of institutional change and economic advancement and development, with special…
Abstract
Discusses the need to re‐examine the education and training systems for adaptability to issues of institutional change and economic advancement and development, with special reference to Africa. Reports the outcomes of a consultative study involving persons associated with ILS education and training around the globe. The paper was presented at SCECSAL 13 on the 27 July to 1 August 1998 held in Nairobi, Kenya.
Details