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This article is written for practitioners. It argues that training policies should clearly be related to objectives of stimulating the role of start‐ups, improving survival rates and increasing the growth potential of small firms. It argues also that the supply offer of training in Europe is somewhat below that of need. It looks at the possible reasons for this both from the demand and the supply side. It suggests that the small firm needs distinct approaches by trainers and organisers and a level of professional competence which might yet be largely missing. It identifies the necessary competences for trainer and organiser to deliver effective training. It concludes by arguing the case for the development of a professional cadre of small business trainers across Europe.

It would be difficult to find a college or university business school that is not currently offering a training programme for small business. Yet despite the enthusiasm with which providers have entered the market, the take‐up rates remain low. Examines the underlying reasons why this might be so and discusses the findings of a detailed survey of 400 small businesses residing in the county of Devon. Shows that education providers are out of touch with the market and, moreover, have a very negative image which must be overcome before small business training can be utilized to its full potential. Calls for greater co‐operation between institutional providers and local Training and EnterpriseCouncils to ensure that this situation is rectified.

The combination of action and process has remained the attention of the psychology of entrepreneurship research. Moreover, special attention has also been paid to the whens and hows of entrepreneurial psychological training. Keeping this in view the current study has tested the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) training on small business entrepreneurial career resilience. Using action regulation theory (ART), a serial mediation model of IEO behaviour and entrepreneurial career adaptability is hypothesised.

This study used a longitudinal randomised controlled field experiment in which the data were collected at four points. A total of 546 small business owners from Lahore, Pakistan, participated in this research (training group = 265, control group = 281). The data were analysed using ANCOVAs and PROCESS Model 6.

The research has found that IEO training impacts the entrepreneurial career resilience of small business owners through the development of IEO behaviour and career adaptability.

This experimental inquiry is a novel attempt to extend the career-related outcomes of IEO training (career resilience) based on ART through the mediating role of IEO behaviour and career adaptability. In addition, it has tested the IEO training in the developing country of Pakistan, which is a relevant context for enhancing its socio-economic growth.

Data are presented which indicate a need for improvement in the personnel skills of small business owners. A set of criteria is then provided for possible approaches to training small business owners in personnel skills. These criteria were developed from interview material acquired in a field study of small business owners. They include: research substantiation of overall effectiveness; face validity; degree of efficiency of time use; ease of access; relative cost; degree to which the method involves criticism of trainees; and effectiveness in skill development. The training approaches evaluated or these criteria are the lecture method, programmed instruction; business games/simulation; the case method, the role play method, sensitivity training; the conference method; and behaviour role modelling. Results suggest that most small business owners would derive the greatest benefits from behaviour role modelling, business games, and/or role play method and would benefit least from the lecture method and sensitivity training.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Considering the fact that business management training has the potential to improve performance of micro and small enterprises, it is surprising why participation rates in most freely offered management training courses remain low. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that determine an invitee’s decision to participate in a capacity building management training for street food entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Using data from a baseline survey, the study invited 314 street food entrepreneurs, selected through a stratified random technique from a list of 516 eligible food entrepreneurs. Training participants were invited to the programme through official invitation letters which were hand-delivered. Data on reasons for non-participation were collected either through phone interviews or on-site visit when a vendor could not be reached on phone. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise characteristics of vendors and businesses as well as reasons for non-participation while probit model was used to estimate determinants of participation.

The study found that whereas vendors with higher formal education better appreciate the benefits of education and training, their counterparts with fewer years of schooling do not. The latter’s perceived knowledge deficiencies appear to explain the difference in participation rates. Also, total workforce does not necessarily increase the probability of participation, especially when there are no trusted workers in the business who will take over critical activities such as handling of finances in the absence of the owner. The study also found that distance between vending premises and training centres had significant negative effects on vendors’ participation in the training programme.

The external validity of the study findings and conclusions may not be limited to all informal sectors of the developing economies due to high degree of heterogeneity of the informal economy.

The study focusses on an informal sector in developing country dominated by women. The study focusses on understanding informal entrepreneurs’ response to formal training.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which hope and perceived goal attainment can be developed in subsistence entrepreneurs through the right training tools.

A longitudinal study of a subsistence entrepreneurship training program in three Central American countries was carried out. Participants were divided on the basis of their exposure to training (yes, no), and of the type of training received (none, business plan, business model). The authors carried out three assessments (just before the program, six months and one year after the program) of participants’ business goals and their hope of attaining them. Information was analyzed using linear regression.

Participants exposed to training reported significant increases in perceived goal attainment and in their hope levels. Training based on the business plan affected hope agency in the short term, as predicted by the logic of causation theory. Training based on the business canvas affected hope pathways, as predicted by the logic of effectuation theory.

Given the data collection process (a non-random sample and selection of participants), the findings are not generalizable without stringent procedures and further replication.

If hope is a reliable predictor of goal attainment, it should be promoted and measured. Given the limited means of gathering data and making reliable projections that most entrepreneurs endure, the business canvas’ contribution to entrepreneurs’ “emotional equipment” ceteris paribus should be more valuable for subsistence entrepreneurs.

This is the first study comparing the short- and long-term effects of two entrepreneurial learning devices on entrepreneurs’ hope and business goal attainment.

There is currently a debate between NGOs and academia on the effectiveness of training microcredit recipients. One side suggests that merely supplying credit will stimulate entrepreneurial business. The other side proposes that training microcredit recipients in business skills will improve business performance and probably have other important effects. This study was undertaken with the cooperation Vietnam Women’s Union and PeaceTrees Vietnam. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of business training programmes for women microcredit recipients in rural areas of Vietnam.

Using a questionnaire administered to 120 women business owners in several communes in Quang Tri Province, data were collected in 2012 on their business training programmes, perceptions of their business performance, motivation, factors for success, and several other indicators.

The findings suggest that business training can improve microenterprise performance and has a number of other positive results, such as increasing motivation, success, and perceptions of entrepreneurs.

The research is limited by the nature of the sample and sample size. Future research should focus on women entrepreneurs in other parts of Vietnam, other developing countries, and on male entrepreneurs, to help understand differences between regions, countries, and gender.

This paper provides empirical evidence to support the argument that business training is effective in improving the performance of microenterprises.

Job training, as traditionally conceptualized, is intended to improve the employment and earnings of disadvantaged individuals. Both theory and practice have approached the problem by segmenting the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders: the individual, the employer, and civil society. Such segmentation is problematic because it removes stakeholders from their contexts, and ignores the holistic and complex nature of the underlying problems and their remedies. Reframed as a form of business and community development, job training can focus on capacity building, stakeholder involvement, and expanded notions of skill achievement and geographic scope, thereby addressing stakeholder interests in context. The three cases presented in this chapter describe such reframing: from increasing human capital to building human capacity; from a partnership or individual business focus to a multi-stakeholder approach; and from job and employer-specific skill development to that which is multi-phased and geographically dispersed. Complexity theory will be used to explain these developments.

Gives an overview of the contents of entrepreneurship and small enterprise training in general as well as the specific objectives of these interventions in the South African situation. Briefly covers the problems found and highlighted by researchers in the 1990s and assesses whether the problems or deficiencies of the past are being addressed. Concludes that the training emphasis of small, medium and micro‐enterprise service providers in South Africa still seem to be more on conventional training than entrepreneurial training. Also concludes that entrepreneurship and business training are confused as being similar. It is recommended that training interventions should be monitored to determine those that are the most successful and appropriate for the South African situation.