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Suggests that interaction between managers and consultants may be a way for learning organisations to continue learning and developing. Looks at a study into the relationship between professional consultants and their clients to identify two leading factors in influencing whether organisational learning occurs. These imply that the consultant is central for the achievement of organisational development and success. Examines two specific cases and concludes that within this context, there are a number of factors that influence whether organisational learning can be achieved, including role assignment and linking individual development to organisational development.

The dairy industry is an important element of the New Zealand economy, and its key producer organization (the New Zealand Dairy Board) views itself as being progressive in relation to the acquisition and adoption of technology. However it accepts that in order to remain price competitive in international markets, technological improvement is a continual necessity. As a result the Board needs to increase production efficiency by encouraging farmers to “learn about” (and adopt) new methods and processes. In 1997 the Board initiated a strategy for improving learning within farm organisations. A project was undertaken to examine the barriers to learning for farmers and to explore alternative methods for enhancing their learning. This paper reflects on the use of action research (AR) as one alternative method. In a case study on women dairy farmers, AR was used as a method of resolving an on‐farm technical issue. This process is compared with the discussion group method already used widely in the New Zealand dairy industry.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of the diary‐interview method in the context of research on technological learning in the New Zealand dairy industry. Design/methodology/approach – The diary‐interview method was used to collect data from 8 farmers operating small or medium sized farms. The data gathered supplemented that collected through other means and was an important component of the case studies. Findings – The diary‐interview method was found to be highly appropriate for this project context because it allowed the researchers access to data that would not otherwise have been available (due to project constraints) and to a deeper degree of reflection from the interviewees. Research limitations/implications – The use of the diary interview method is time consuming and can result in complex data to be analysed. The method was only applied to 8 cases and while the experiences in each were positive there may be instances where its application would be inappropriate. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on effective qualitative research and provides a detailed guide to the use of the method, as well as its limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the business assistance realities of New Zealand small and medium enterprise (SME) owner‐managers in order to better understand those experiences in terms of their ability to identify and use what is provided.

Site visits were made to 51 small firms that had been recruited from a random sample of 500 New Zealand firms that employed up to 50 full‐time equivalent staff and were in the “manufacturing” or “service” sector. An interview was then carried out with the owner‐manager of the firm.

The owner‐managers of some SMEs interact with the support infrastructure regularly, while others do not. The sources of business assistance most frequently accessed where not necessarily those that were subsequently perceived as being the most useful or significant.

The findings are limited in their generalisability due to the research methodology and research context. However, the conclusions will be of interest to researchers, policy‐makers and business assistance providers.

The paper addresses a gap in the knowledge base surrounding business assistance and SMEs. Typically investigations on this topic focus on supply‐side issues (i.e. how service provision can be improved) rather than those that relate to demand (i.e. investigating the needs of owner‐managers). The project was unique in the New Zealand context (both in terms of scale and research approach).

The purpose of the paper is to present practical methodological insights into doing research with the owner‐managers of small and medium enterprises.

Practical methodological lessons are reported from a project involving interviews with owner‐managers of a set of 50 firms recruited from a random sample of 500 New Zealand “manufacturing” or “service” firms employing 5‐50 full‐time staff.

The experiences of the project team were reflected on, refined, and presented as six practical “lessons” to be considered by others contemplating engaging with SMEs to achieve a research objective.

The findings are subjective (in that, they are the opinions and experiences of the researchers involved) and are derived from a specific context (the SME sector in New Zealand).

The paper contributes to the small, but growing, body of literature that specifically deals with “good practice” research methodology in relation to small firms.

Following a review of assistance provision to New Zealand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 1998, the government established the BIZ programme. The purpose of the new initiative was to build management capability amongst SMEs by providing them with free access to a business needs assessment, followed by training and seminars, one‐on‐one mentoring and networking. BIZ became operational in February 1999 and in June 2000, a team of researchers undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the training component of the programme. This paper reports on one aspect of this evaluation, which was designed to capture the experience and views of the BIZ training providers. During this phase of the project a team of three researchers travelled throughout New Zealand to interview providers. Summarises the different experiences of these front‐line organisations in delivering BIZ training, as a contribution to the wider policy debate about the role of government in assisting small enterprise.

This research aimed to obtain insights into how farmers on small and medium‐sized farms perceived the benefits of the information they receive from their interpersonal networks and other sources.

Farmers' information environments were explored using socio‐spatial knowledge networks, diaries and in‐depth interviews (to draw out participants' interpretations of significance). This enabled the perceived benefits of information to be interpreted within the context of participants' interpersonal networks.

Both on and off‐farm information sources were important. The benefit most valued was when farmers perceived they were enabled to challenge or reframe their thinking about professional and business issues.

The study of information benefits is still relatively new, but a fuller appreciation of how learners perceive benefits from incoming information may provide insights into how to present information in ways that foster useful outcomes. Possible gaps and limitations in farmers' information supply may also follow the identification of how benefits are perceived.

Farmers' access to information was mainly shaped by the particularities of the contexts within which they lived and worked. Yet they proactively kept up significant interpersonal connections even at a distance (by means such as by phone contact with former neighbours who now lived elsewhere). Farmers' sources of information were closely aligned to the information they already possessed, so that “what they know” was intimately configured within “who they are” as members of a family, a community, and as farmers.

The aim of enterprise education is to develop in individuals (particularly the young) a set of skills and attitudes that will allow them to be both job creators and job seekers, and help them contribute to the “knowledge economy”. In New Zealand there is heightened interest in the potential contribution of enterprise education to these goals and the promotion of self‐employment as a legitimate work option. At the same time, participation levels in enterprise education programmes for secondary school students such as the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) are increasing. There are also moves to expand the types of enterprise education programmes available. However, there is little empirical evidence in New Zealand that demonstrates the impact of programmes like the YES, or which looks at the different ways in which such programmes are delivered. Deals with one of the objectives of an evaluation of the YES programme, where the researchers sought to identify attributes of effective programme delivery from the perspective of the key stakeholders. Concludes that “best practice” in this context is inappropriate as it implies that a single model of practice exists.

Governments around the world are increasingly focusing on initiatives that encourage business improvement and build “firm capability”. A particular target of such initiatives has been the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. As the way in which this sector contributes to a country's economic and social goals has become more widely understood, there has been a growing emphasis on encouraging the owners and managers of these enterprises to engage in “best practice” initiatives. The assumption is that best practice will lead to increased levels of firm performance and economic growth. In New Zealand the Ministry of Economic Development has undertaken a study of business practice and performance based on a framework initially developed by the Australian Manufacturing Council in 1994 for a survey on the manufacturing sector. The study is now in its third iteration and for the first time incorporates all sectors of the economy. This paper presents the results relating to employee practices in small firms from the most recent study.

The purpose of this paper is to move away from the studies that have to date only focused on “visible women” (those who are running businesses as owner‐managers or as active partners, i.e. as copreneurs) to a focus on those that are largely invisible. These are the women who are involved in small firms but who are not copreneurs, and who do not have clearly acknowledged and/or formalised roles.

The paper is based on data collected as part of a research programme that involved 250 in‐depth interviews carried out with owner‐managers in manufacturing and service firms throughout New Zealand over a two‐year period.

The findings from the interviews suggest that there are many women playing critical roles in New Zealand small firms whose contributions are unacknowledged, and which may be also unseen and unpaid. These women (typically as wives of owner‐managers) are contributing invaluably to the futures and fortunes of those firms – albeit from “behind the scenes”.

In the paper, a descriptive typology of the roles that wives play in New Zealand small firms is put forward. The typology provides a starting point for those wanting to explore similar dimensions of female “invisibility” in other contexts, and will contribute to the body of knowledge related to gender in the context of small firms.