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This study evaluates current and future roles of UK entrepreneurship centres (ECs) within Higher Education institutions. Literature suggests current activity in entrepreneurship education is strongly associated with the contribution of ECs. However, ECs experience resource limitations and high stakeholder's expectations, leading to a proliferation of aims, roles and identity issues.

The study evaluates five UK EC using evidence from a range of stakeholders within each centre. The study considers the strategic direction of ECs, their aim and roles, resourcing and the leadership role they adopt.

The study assesses the role ECs are fulfilling in the promotion of entrepreneurship and the resource constraints limiting future development. The need for EC identity and community contribution are identified as a determinant of success.

This study offers novel insight into factors influencing EC behaviour and future strategy, which will be of value for UK HEI and Entrepreneurship educators.

After considering the various dimensions of innovation policy, this paper reviews the experiences of the Czech Republic (CR) in implementing such policies in the post‐1990 transition period. Particular attention is paid to the contribution of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in innovation activities and to the various direct and indirect measures used by the CR in their support. The paper also focuses on the education and training issues and policy prescriptions deemed most appropriate to medium‐term goal setting in the CR. It is noted that in order for such education and training policies to be effective, they must be informed by a number of well‐established patterns and trends within globalised, knowledge‐based economies as well as by the particular circumstances faced by the CR or other transition economies.

Based on the practical experiences of the authors through their work on a LEONARDO project, this paper focuses on the internationalisation process within small and medium sized enterprises and in particular, the key role of the attitudes and behaviour of the owner‐manager. The paper argues that the owner‐manager largely determines the behavioural characteristics of SMEs, and that in turn these behavioural characteristics are determined by the cultural orientation of the owner‐manager. To illustrate the key issues involved, a conceptual model, the internationalisation web, has been developed. This conceptual model can be used to understand the policy implications that emerge from the arguments and to extrapolate relevant policy recommendations aimed at improving the efficiency of the support provided to SMEs wishing to operate in foreign markets.

In discussion with Bruce Lloyd, Lester Thurow, Professor of Management and Economics at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his new book The Future of Capitalism. Despite the end of communism, or perhaps because of it, Thurow argues that capitalism will be under considerable pressure in the years ahead. These challenges arise from demographic factors, including increased trends for more global mobility; as well as the impact on the global economy of the new knowledge‐based industries, which are going to create both new opportunities for inequality at the same time as reinforcing old inequalities. Thurow argues strongly that we need to combine an understanding of these pressures and trends, with a willingness, and ability, to intervene effectively, if we are to be optimistic about the economic development of the world as a whole in the years ahead.

The purpose of this research is to assess the place of language skills in the international orientation of decision‐makers of successfully internationalised SMEs. The position of language skills in this area of literature and policy is problematic and a new paradigm is proposed.

This paper considers findings from an empirical project using both quantitative and qualitative methods, first, a 1,200 company telephone survey and second, an 80 company batch of face‐to‐face interviews.

Strong international orientation seems indeed to be a determinant of success in international trade. The decision‐makers of the successful companies were notably more likely to have foreign language skills than those in the other groups and were also the only group to include self‐reported skills at the highest level. However, comparison of the countries in which the firms were dealing with the languages in which decision‐makers claimed skills shows very clearly that the decision‐makers of the “successful” international companies were often not using their foreign language skills in business. In addition, these decision‐makers also possessed better attitudes towards foreign experience and other elements of international orientation.

The paper discusses the implications of the findings for policy‐makers responsible for training and trainers themselves. The evidence supports the view that government subsidies focusing on language training might be better directed at a more varied range of activities to develop international orientation.

The article contributes to the development of qualitative research in this area in examining the foreign language use of decision‐makers in successful international SMEs and locating this within their broader international orientation. It posits that language skills make an indirect contribution to overall international business success which is more valuable than their direct contribution to improved communication with specific foreign clients and markets.

This paper is the result of empirical research funded by The British Academy. The overall purpose of the study is to investigate the initial barriers to internationalization experienced and perceived by small retailers based in the UK and the role of government support in addressing such obstacles.

A qualitative, multiple case research design is adopted. This involves semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with the senior manager/decision‐maker in six retail SMEs based in the UK and the analysis of company documentation and information from a range of secondary sources.

The findings from the case study data highlight internal and external barriers to internationalization relating to management: lack of vision, fear of losing control, lack of knowledge; the company: transfer of retail concept overseas, lack of resources, lack of consolidation in domestic market; and the external environment: legislation, currency, cultural differences and logistics. The findings also highlight an overall negative experience and perception of government support in assisting smaller retailers to overcome these barriers and aid expansion outside the UK.

The findings of this study provide important insight into the perceived and actual barriers encountered by retail SMEs. On one hand, the focus on SMEs provides fresh evidence to the retail internationalization literature, which has focused primarily on the barriers faced by large multinational retailers. On the other hand, the context of this study, yields new insight into research conducted in the field of SME internationalization, which has to date ignored smaller firms in the retail industry. The findings of this study also allow for recommendations to be made to both owner‐managers and government organizations.

This paper explores the challenges involved in the development of coordinated management consulting services for small and medium‐sized international companies in the East of England. This paper synthesises the findings of recently published quantitative and qualitative research to identify the characteristics of small to medium‐sized enterprises seeking to trade internationally. The provision of coordinated and funded consulting services for these companies will require skills and marketing tools development for advisers and consultants. The region's success in achieving its economic targets will be assessed in terms of its inherent features and emerging strategies to move from service based on the information paradigm to those based on the consultancy paradigm.

A study by the OECD in 2001 indicated that the UK had one of the strongest links between social deprivation and educational underachievement. This article uses original analysis to report a close correlation over the period 1997‐2001 between educational achievement in the London boroughs and various indicators of the extent of social deprivation in those boroughs. When the data are further disaggregated in terms of “inner” and “outer” London locations of those boroughs the so‐called “cycle of deprivation” hypothesis is supported still more strongly. The article goes on to discuss the implications of these results for broader policy issues such as central government use of the “standards fund” to target finance to the more deprived schools and the recently announced government decision to appoint a commissioner to improve standards in London schools.