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The purpose of this paper is to understand how micro-sized social enterprises can compensate their employees equitably, despite encountering resource scarcity and prioritising their social mission.

The researcher interviewed the founders of micro-sized social enterprises from around the East Midlands and asked about the innovative human resource (HR) practices they used to compensate their employees. The eight interviews were semi-structured, in-depth and analysed thematically.

The findings and discussion demonstrate that the founders recognised the importance of compensating their employees equitably, but also acknowledged how paying them according to their contribution conflicted with prioritising their social mission as they never had sufficient resources to do everything. Alternatively, these founders used innovative HR practices to establish transactional relations, which primarily consisted of training, experience and references. This was perceived as equitable, despite paying their employees less than their contribution merited, as it allowed them to improve their future career prospects. These HR practices also benefitted these micro-social enterprises by increasing their human capital without increasing their costs.

The paper could be beneficial for academics and practitioners as it explores how the characteristics associated with being a micro-sized social enterprise impacted their HR practices.

This study aims to examine the effect of entrepreneurial skills, market orientation, sales orientations and networking on entrepreneurial competency and performance of micro-enterprises in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Adopting a cross-sectional design, this paper collected data through structured interviews from 403 micro-entrepreneurs from “Majlis Amanah Rakyat,” Kelantan and “Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Istiadat,” Kelantan.

The findings reveal that entrepreneurial skills, market orientation and networking have a positive effect on entrepreneurial competency. Then, entrepreneurial competency, entrepreneurial skills and networking have a positive effect on enterprise performance. The findings show a significant mediation effect of entrepreneurial competency on the relationships between entrepreneurial skills, market orientation and networking and enterprise performance.

Addressing the understudied “human factor” in entrepreneurship, this paper extends the resource-based view and enriches the existing entrepreneurship literature in Malaysia. It provides useful insights into the improvement of micro-enterprise performance, which is crucial for promoting entrepreneurial activities and for enhancing socio-economic conditions among low-income households in Malaysia. Thus, the government and developmental organizations should focus on the development of entrepreneurial skills, market-oriented approach, networking traits and entrepreneurial competencies and subsequently encourage poor households to perform entrepreneurial activities.

This study aims to find whether the micro-enterprises lead to women empowerment and entrepreneurship and make them to be wholly involved in income-generating activities by having them choose a business venture of their own.

Women empowerment is very important for the acceleration of economic growth. The economic empowerment of women is being regarded these days as a sine qua non of progress for a country; hence, the issue of economic empowerment of women is of paramount importance to political thinkers, social scientists and reformers. The self-help groups (SHGs) have paved the way for economic independence of rural women. The members of SHGs are involved in micro-entrepreneurships. Empowerment is intellectual capital. Capital is a life blood of any industry.

Without women development, economic development will not take place. Women should be imparted technical knowledge, skill training and marketing techniques in the process of establishing an enterprise by them for more sustainability.

Micro-enterprises add values to a country’s economy by creating jobs, enhancing income, strengthening purchasing power, lowering costs and adding business convenience.

In this paper, the authors review the literature on the nature of the small and medium-sized enterprise concept. The review examines the broad diversity of terms and definitions used to describe these kinds of firms in scholarly and practical settings. They relate this examination to the concept of small business for the purpose of comparison, in order to highlight differences and similarities between the concepts.

Relevant literature including articles from academia and defining documents from practical settings was identified through a scope literature review. Field data were subsequently collected via questionnaires sent to editors and authors of articles related to the theme. The data were content analyzed and the resulting codes consolidated into dimensions in accordance with the Gioia method. Chi-squared tests were applied to categorical data.

The use of the composite category “small and medium” was found to be predominant in the labeling of small businesses in scientific articles, including those in journals that specialize in small businesses, with no justifications presented for this, characterizing a widespread and consensual practice between authors and editors. In the defining documents of practical settings, however, the authors observed greater consistency and precision both in the terms used and in the delimiting values for a small business (self-employed, micro business, small business). In the sample of 27 defining documents mentioned in the articles, 25 specifically defined “small business” and 20 defined “micro business,” using indicators such as number of employees and annual turnover. The indicators delimiting values regarding the category of micro business were the same in all the documents analyzed and, regarding the category of small business, many documents used the same delimiting values.

Recognizing the “non-large enterprise” myth will provide a more effective posture for editors and authors to avoid using the term “small and medium,” resulting in greater precision, understanding and knowledge regarding small businesses. A better definition of a small business by academia can help public policymakers and managers of organizations that support small businesses to tailor their actions better according to the different sizes of companies. This will also lead to social gains, given the importance of small businesses in terms of job creation and countries' economies.

The authors identified and described the myth of the “non-large enterprise” among academics, characterized by the dichotomous view of the business universe, composed of “large enterprises” and “non-large enterprises,” the latter group being characterized by the widespread use of the term “small and medium.”

Promoting and supporting entrepreneurship is a critical pillar of Oman’s vision 2040. The need to understand to what extent the effectiveness of public funds given to micro and small enterprises in Oman as well as to understand the characteristics of the funds that can drive the impact of such government financial support programs on those enterprises motivated us to conduct this study. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the government loan support programs on job creation in micro and small enterprises in Oman.

Hypotheses were tested using data collected from 1,127 micro and small enterprises that received loan supports from the Government of Oman. The authors explored the impact of a set of predictors on a dependent variable (job creation) to understand to what extent do the supported micro and small enterprise characteristics significantly influence job creations in the enterprises. Multiple regression and General Linear Model Multivariate Analysis statistical techniques were used to test the hypotheses.

There is a positive relationship between government supported firms’ characteristics and job creation for both nationals and expatriates’ employment. The empirical results suggest that, when compared with the micro enterprises, the small enterprises were able to create more jobs for nationals than for expatriates, although the effect of the support program on job creation was significant for both groups.

This paper contributes to the literature debate on the effectiveness of Oman’s entrepreneurship policy. Using multivariate analysis, the study analyzes the public support program for enterprises in Oman and how it can be improved to support the Oman 2040 Vision.

This study aims to explore how horizontal collaboration can help small and micro enterprises within the drink sector through the relational theory lens.

The use of qualitative research methods, including focus groups and interviews, facilitated understanding the horizontal collaboration in micro and small companies within the Welsh brewery industry. Data collection involved conducting three focus groups and 13 interviews within the Welsh brewery sector in the UK. The collaboration phenomena were explained using the three elements of relational theory: relational rents, relational capitals and relational governance.

Micro and small enterprises in the drink sector use collaborative initiatives in building new capabilities to generate relational rents. In addition, relational capitals and relational governance mechanisms were identified to support the horizontal collaboration among these enterprises.

The focus is on only one part of the drinks industry, i.e. the brewery industry; therefore, this study could be extended to other industries within the drink sector or across manufacturing industries.

The micro and small enterprises can collaborate to achieve relational rent, but this collaboration requires strong relational capitals, such as trust. These partners need to change informal governance mechanisms that already exist towards more contractual formal mechanisms.

Prior research has largely focused on vertical collaboration, with limited studies using the relational theory lens to explicate horizontal collaboration phenomena and no previous research in the context of micro and small companies. Relational rents, relational capitals and relational governance mechanisms are studied to provide insights into an effective collaboration in this context.

The purpose of the study is to understand the perception held by Micro Steel Enterprises in Punjab, India, towards the role played by FinTech in it. The quantitative study uses a structured questionnaire to collect primary responses. A total of 400 Micro Steel Enterprises have been approached from Punjab. Here, statistical analyses are used, including chi-square tests, Principal Component Analysis, Multiple Linear Regression and One-way ANOVA. The satisfaction levels across the three factors revealed a significant relationship with the financial aspect only. This clarifies the situation and reveals that using the FinTech services among the Micro Steel Enterprises is only a modification caused by the financial constraints that generate satisfactory levels in the respondents. However, based on the operational conditions of these enterprises is not the factor causing the satisfaction levels, neither are the banking processes. The advances in the course must be solely made based on the financial aspects of Micro Steel Enterprises. The two variables of the owner of these firms are the owner’s age and the firm’s ownership type. The banking aspect and the Micro Steel Enterprise are also found to have associations with them. To motivate the use of FinTech in the process, the owners can be motivated differently towards its usage. The study is a novel attempt to understand the Micro Steel Enterprises in Punjab and its perception towards the use of FinTech. Punjab is the hub of the Steel Industry in India.

This article assesses gender‐related differences in rural enterprises and examines implications for development of economic policy and services in a rural district of Sweden. The article focuses on female owned micro enterprises. A quantitative and qualitative survey of 32 micro enterprise owners was carried out. Focus was on owner attitudes toward local governmental policies and programmes. There were not strong differences between genders for items using multiple‐choice responses. Where qualitative, written responses were solicited there were some differences in perceptions and attitudes. The female respondents tended to write more and respond in ways that suggest that they tend to reflect more upon the future and new possibilites. Differences in style of operation were evident; others have reported this. Written responses from female participants described in greater detail and more clearly the ongoing need for governmental support of networking activities and other programmes that promote cooperation and resource pooling (regardless of gender).

This paper is a case study of the use of information systems (IS) by a micro enterprise. In particular, it attempts to answer the question: can micro enterprises use IS strategically? It examines the distinguishing characteristics of micro enterprises and the use of IS in micro enterprises. It gives a brief history and description of the micro enterprise in question (Lanzarote First) and then analyses the use of IS from two angles: functionality and benefits. Importantly, the strategic benefits of the various IS are differentiated from other efficiency and effectiveness benefits. The case also tests the use of an IS planning methodology. The case illustrates that a micro enterprise can use IS strategically and, because of the absence of certain factors which are present in large organisations, the impact of IS may be even greater.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives and the business model canvas adopted by urban poor women to set up microenterprises in the informal sector.

The qualitative analysis used in the paper is based on empirical findings from field work conducted in Mumbai and Pune district in the state of Maharashtra situation on the western coast of the Indian sub-continent. In total, 63 women microentrepreneurs were interviewed using an interview guide, which contained open-ended questions regarding choices made to become an entrepreneur, business canvas mechanics, family and community support to start and manage their businesses. The paper presents findings across the sample and two selected case studies.

In contrast to the view that women’s informal sector micro entrepreneurship is a result of “involuntary exclusion” or “poverty”, this paper found that women’s motives are a result of a wide variety of factors including supplementing family income, gain social recognition and a variety of other reasons. The business canvas of the entrepreneurs focussed on key partners, resource planning, customer orientation and sales promotion.

The limitation of the study is that it focussed on women micro entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector in Mumbai and Pune. Similar studies can be carried out in other mega-metro cities with a large urban poor population in India.

Venturing in the microenterprise sector is an important way for employment generation amongst women from the low-income groups in the urban informal sector. Women are becoming important players in the microenterprise sector and have tremendous relevance in India as the contribution of this sector to the Indian economy is significant.

There are very few studies in the Indian context, which focus upon the business canvas of women micro entrepreneurs in the urban informal sector. This study, therefore, presents new knowledge around women’s micro entrepreneurship in India.