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This analytical article points to the lack of retail business experience and knowledge which characterises many of the small shopkeepers across this country. It also makes clear how far the small independent retailer feels hounded by government and competition and suggests that help may be in order. Also contained here are the results of a pilot survey of prospective purchasers and vendors of small retail units and the article points to the need for further research into the birth and death of small retail businesses.

As Britain's shopping provision becomes increasingly centralised, the small local shop is becoming a rare feature of the retail grocery trade. Dr David A. Kirby examines the results of a pilot survey to discover the attitudes and opinions of failed retailers. He goes on to suggest that there is a real need for efficient and convenient local stores which may require special concessions from the Government, and certainly an injection of entrepreneurial talent, to survive.

There is certainly an awareness in this country of the need for training in the retail sector. However, this is directed principally at the needs of the larger retailer (cf the articles on training in our May/June issue). David Kirby suggests that little attention is being given to the training needs of the small independent. In this article he outlines a training and advisory programme for village shopkeepers which took place in mid‐Wales, a programme funded in part by the EEC in response to the decline of the village shop in that area.

The study considers how entrepreneurship and its leaders need to adapt to address the sustainability challenge.

It adopts a grounded theory style approach and is based on a case study derived from non-participant observation and secondary data.

The research findings suggest that to address the sustainability challenge requires a new approach to entrepreneurship that is based on systems thinking and the principle of harmony. It suggests the need for less emphasis to be placed on “making as much money as possible” and that there should be broader focus on the development of community entrepreneurship and the creation of civic entrepreneurs.

The research introduces a new approach to entrepreneurship in order to address the sustainability challenge and this has implications for entrepreneurial leadership.

The concept, known as Harmonious Entrepreneurship, requires the integration of the four main approaches to entrepreneurship (economic, eco, humane and social), abandonment of the Friedman (1970) mantra that the responsibility of business is to make as much money as possible and a change in the mindset and competence requirement of the entrepreneurial leader.

The findings imply the need to change the way entrepreneurship is taught and entrepreneurial leaders are trained and developed. Also they suggest the need to focus on community entrepreneurship and the creation of Civic Entrepreneurs.

The article introduces a new, more holistic approach to entrepreneurship in order to address the sustainability challenge. It is based on a study of the vision and achievement of an Islamic entrepreneur and has implications for entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurship education and training. It will be of interest to entrepreneurship scholars, educationalists and those concerned with the promotion and development of entrepreneurship, as well as all agencies and individuals concerned with the future of the planet and its people. Recommendations are made for further research and verification.

In the past few years the convenience store has become something of a phenomenon in this country. As a symptom of the polarisation of the UK retail scene, further development of the convenience store seems inevitable. But David Kirby points out that successful operators will be those who get right both the formula and the location. He sees location as particularly crucial for the convenience store with its dependence on high customer flows and low value transactions.

The purpose of this research is to examine the evolution of entrepreneurship, explain the reasons for why it is not contributing significantly to the global sustainability challenge and propose a new approach and business model to better enable it to do so.

The research adopts a grounded theory–style approach based on case study production and analysis using secondary data and, where appropriate, personal observation.

The paper concludes that entrepreneurship has failed to address the sustainability challenge because of its emphasis on “making as much money as possible” and its failure to appreciate that the planet is a system. It concludes that for any solution to be successful it must be based on systems thinking and should integrate or harmonise the traditional, separately applied approaches to entrepreneurship in order to produce a business model with a Triple Bottom Line, whereby Profit, Planet and People are in Harmony.

While the proposed model is based on a real-life case, it needs to be tested in different politico-economic contexts and industry sectors. It has the potential, though, to impact very considerably the traditional thinking on entrepreneurship and its application.

The proposed new approach will have significant implications for entrepreneurship education and training, including the adoption of a stakeholder rather than shareholder approach to management.

Sustainability is arguably the most urgent and critical problem facing contemporary society. The proposed model provides a potential solution to that problem, particularly at the local community level.

The research proposes a new approach to entrepreneurship that breaks with the Friedman (1970) mantra that the purpose of business is to “make as much money as possible”.

Despite, or perhaps even because of, the economic uncertainties of the period, the 1970s witnessed a radical transformation of the British distributive system. Most of the changes which occurred were similar to those experienced elsewhere in the Western world, and in a review of developments in EEC countries, Dawson has suggested that the impact of these changes on society could be similar to that produced by the Industrial Revolution. In Britain at least, the changes in distribution were, and remain, a result of very marked changes in society: most notably the change in consumption patterns brought about by endemic inflation, increasing unemployment and periodic world energy crises. The result has been increased competition, a search for greater efficiency and diversification of traditional product lines. Thus the British distribution system throughout the 1970s was dominated by the trend to mass merchandising, by the emergence of large firms and a consequent increase of corporate power and by the appearance of new distribution forms. While many of the conditions and developments experienced in the 1970s are expected to continue into the 1980s, it has been predicted (Distributive Industry Training Board 1980) that by the 1990s further revolutionary changes are likely to have occurred, particularly as a result of widespread automation involving new technology. The industry is, therefore, in the middle of a period of very rapid change.

In the UK, per capita expenditure in the DIY market is particularly high, accounting in fact for over a quarter of the European total. And it is an expanding market. The growth of the home improvement centre has been even more dramatic. But even though heavy price‐cutting and low margins have been characteristic features, there are now signs that the emphasis is swinging away from price and more to choice and service. In this special feature David Kirby looks first at the DIY market as a whole, and then specifically at one of its most thrusting and energetic companies — the Scottish‐based Timberland (with outlets also in England). Currently with 75 stores and a turnover of £14m, they have recently opened a 24,000 sq ft Home Improvement Centre at Kilmarnock.

The Swedish Co‐op have taken a positive attitude to the problem of small shops with their Narkop group, which has converted their existing shops into modern and relatively efficient retail units. The project should not be seen solely in economic terms but as a recognition on the part of the Swedish Co‐op that efficiently organised and serviced small shops are an integral feature of the retail system in both economic and social terms. The Co‐op has realised that retailing, after all, fulfils a social as well as an economic function in modern society.

This study aims to develop an entrepreneurial business model capable of addressing and preventing the exploitation and inequality that traditionally have resulted from entrepreneurship, particularly in emerging economies.

The research uses systems thinking, the first law of cybernetics, and the principles of harmony to formulate a systemic solution to the problem, which it exemplifies via six purposefully selected short cases drawn from diverse industry sectors and economies.

This paper demonstrates how the conventional model of entrepreneurship, often associated with colonial exploitation and resultant inequalities, can be transformed into a triple bottom line model—harmonious entrepreneurship – that integrates the traditional economic, eco-, humane, and social approaches and creates a synergy where profit, planet, and people are in harmony. The model challenges the profit maximisation/shareholder value doctrine of business success.

Only six cases are presented here, and there is a need for further research in different political-economic contexts and industry sectors. Also, the way entrepreneurship is taught needs to change so that it addresses the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

There needs to be a change in the entrepreneurial mindset and the way entrepreneurship is taught and potential entrepreneurs are trained if entrepreneurship is to address the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

This is a novel approach to the study of entrepreneurship and its impact on inequality that shows how it can ameliorate and/or prevent inequality, particularly in emerging economies, by adopting a more holistic approach to business success and supplanting “having and needing” with “being and caring”.