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The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which growth-oriented small and micro-businesses (SMBs) are affected by regulations. Case studies from North-West England are used to investigate the relationship between attitudes and responses to regulation and the characteristics of business growth.

This research examines the relationship between regulation and growth using eight case studies of SMBs. The selected cases are proactive in seeking new market opportunities and innovative in terms of product development or business process.

Case studies confirm that owner-managers of SMBs experience high levels of regulatory burden. However, some growth-oriented businesses also recognise the advantages in being proactive in seeking regulatory knowledge. These advantages were particularly prevalent in cases where growth is driven by product innovation in relatively new product markets.

The study is based on a limited number of case studies in one region of England. Even so, interviews facilitate probing to increase understanding of the underlying reasons for attitudes towards regulation. The cases demonstrate that even very small businesses can use regulatory knowledge as a basis for business growth.

The findings suggest that networking in order to engage with regulatory regimes can generate competitive advantages and open up new market opportunities for small businesses.

This research contributes towards the debate on the impact of regulations on the economy at the micro level and in doing so highlights important nuances in the relationship between business growth and the regulatory environment.

North Kirklees, an urban area in the East of England, known to have a 6.8 per cent incidence of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), embarked on a nurse‐led CHD primary prevention service in order to improve residents' health. This paper seeks to investigate this serice.

Keen to utilise the principles of performance management, the team applied the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model RADAR logic believing that it would strengthen their “results orientation”. This paper investigates the results.

Using RADAR, the team identified baseline data for CHD health indicators. The teams were then equipped to set targets for continuous improvement, thereby increasing their potential to progress local residents' health. The case‐study findings enable others to adopt a similar approach in their pursuit of excellence.

The CHD Primary Prevention team focused only on performance results in the first instance and did not look at other EFQM Excellence Model results areas.

The paper describes an original case study into how nurses applied RADAR, which gives insight into the team's experiences during their 18‐month journey.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the retail store decision criteria of customers in founder member states of the European Union and customers in Central and Eastern European (CEE) accession member states.

Based on the literature review we theorize that significant differences will exist between founder member state customers and CEE accession member customers and that retailers would be wise to forego a standardized retail mix in favour of strategies more precisely adapted to individual national markets. Utilizing a well‐established retail customer decision criteria scale, the authors collected data from 1,221 Eastern and Western EU customers.

It was found that CEE shoppers hold very high expectations of what they desire in a retail store. Indeed, their expectations were higher than those of founder member state customers on 21 of the 22 dimensions measured.

Because of the convenience nature of the data collection method utilized in the current study, future research that examines these two groups might want to employ a more stratified sampling approach across all the countries. Other limitations that provide fertile ground for future studies include specific explorations of the retail decision criteria with more complex measurement scales, which tap each sub construct more thoroughly.

It is apparent that retailers should thoroughly evaluate new target markets, especially when they are distant and unfamiliar and they should pursue country‐adapted strategies when entering the new CEE accession states.

The paper presents some of the first empirical research that examines the diversity of retail preferences across the enlarged EU.

Supply chains in East Asia are being redesigned following the reassessment of the risk of disruption through terrorist attacks. The nature of these risks and of the costs of the private sector responses is reviewed. The research available suggests the costs incurred are substantial. Government regulation applied to security matters also applies within supply chains. It too has been redesigned in response to the change in the risk of terrorist attacks. Examples of its impacts, and its costs and benefits, are presented. Relevant empirical work remains scarce, but principles for government's role can be identified.

I DON'T KNOW whether you are yet straight in your minds about the present location of the various parts of my erstwhile, present and embryonic business empires, but it will certainly clear my mind of confusion if I try to set it down here once and for all—and you are welcome to photocopy it (without comeback) for the edification of your colleagues!

Many manufacturers try to differentiate their products from close competitors with environmental claims that carry no independent verification. There is also little or no understanding of how much buyers are prepared to pay in higher prices or ‘trade offs’ for enhanced environmental features. A study of business‐to‐business consumers in the electrical and electronic goods sector set out to quantify how environmental issues factor in purchasing managers decisions.