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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tendency of leaders to select their followers depending on their human capital factors such as age, education level, previous working experience and training.

The participants were 1,388 employees working in a randomly selected sample of 289 small-sized businesses operating in Yemen. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect the data. The correspondence analysis method was used to explore the tendency of leaders to select their followers depending on their human capital factors.

We found significant corresponding relationships between leadership styles and the selection of the followers' human capital factors. The passive avoidant style was found to select middle-age, long-experience and fully-trained followers. Transactional style on the other hand was found to select young, middle-level experience and non-trained followers. The transformational leadership style was found to have no selection preferences towards any of the human capital factors except for working experience.

Although, some previous studies tried to understand the leaders–followers relationships, no one investigated the tendency of leaders to select their followers according to their preferences. This study contributes significantly to the leaders–followers theory by studying the selection process of the leadership style of their followers' human capital factors. Understanding this phenomenon could help explain why some leadership styles are more effective than others, especially in very limited resources contexts such as micro-sized businesses.

This study investigates how a competitor orientation (knowledge of and acting on competitors' strengths and weaknesses) facilitates coopetition activities (collaboration with competitors), within networks of competing micro-sized, independent, family restaurants, owned by entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds.

An instrumental case study features data collected from interviews with 30 owners (as key informants) of micro-sized, independent, family-owned restaurants, in two urban clusters within the Midlands (UK). Specifically, the context involves restaurants offering South Asian cuisine and where the owner originated from the Indian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India or Pakistan). Secondary data were collected wherever possible. These two clusters (not named for ethics reasons) are highly populated by members of these respective ethnic communities; also, they contain a relatively large number of restaurants offering South Asian cuisine.

A competitor orientation facilitated strong coopetition-oriented partnerships comprised of extended family and intra-community members that helped enhance individual firms' performance, maintained family employment and sustained their cluster. It also helped owners develop subtle counter strategies where weak ties existed, such as via inter-community networks. For example, strategies attracted customers that were not loyal to a particular restaurant, or indeed, sub-ethnic cuisine (within Bangladesh, India or Pakistan, like the Punjab region). Subtle as opposed to outright counter strategies minimised retaliation, since restaurant owners wanted to avoid price wars, or spreading misinformation where the reputation of a cluster may suffer alongside the likely survival of individual businesses within that regional cluster.

Mixed evidence exists in earlier studies regarding the competitive rivalry in certain sectors where ethnic minority ownership is prominent; not least, restaurants located in regional clusters. However, this investigation considers the notion – what if some of these earlier studies are wrong? More specifically, does certain prior research under-represent the extent that rival entrepreneurs of an ethnic minority origin collaborate rather than compete for mutually beneficial purposes? New evidence emerges regarding ways in which a competitor orientation can influence the performance-enhancing nature of coopetition activities among business owners originating from both intra and inter-ethnic communities.

Using firm-level data from small- to micro-sized agro-based enterprises located in developing Africa, the purpose of this paper is to employ a resource-based marketing model to explain financial and nonfinancial organizational performance outcomes. The moderating effect of firm size on the structural inter-linkages between customer retention orientation, eBrand promotion and the organizational performance outcomes is also explored.

Partial least squares path modeling approach was the analytical method for data analysis purposes.

The data support the assumption that marketing resources as well as the moderating influence of firm size play a strong role on the agro-based enterprise performance.

This study widens the context of inquiry on agro-based enterprise performance to include developing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The value of the paper rests in its intent to offer small- to micro-sized agro-based businesses in emerging markets more practical ways to enhance their performance.

This study aims to examine usage and deployment trends of e‐business technologies within the small and medium‐sized enterprise (SMEs) community in Wales, since the turn of the millennium. Analysis of prior surveys such as the Department of Trade and Industry and Federation of Small Business reveals poor adoption levels of basic information and communication technology deployment and minimal uptake of sophisticated technologies in comparison to other UK regions. Uptake of e‐business was assessed through a quantitative survey of SMEs and contrasted against prior studies undertaken within Wales since 2000 to identify trends and levels of adoption.

The study is comprised of a survey of 500 SMEs including a representative population from diverse geographical and economic regions within Wales. The survey deployed a proportionately stratified and representative sampling technique, whereby two‐thirds of the enterprises selected were micro sized classified enterprises with no employees to ensure compatibility with the Welsh SME population.

Levels of e‐business uptake within prior surveys varied significantly, due to the contrasting nature and size of the samples. As a consequence, several previous surveys presented an overly optimistic picture of e‐business adoption and results must, therefore, be treated with caution. The authors' own survey revealed lower utilisation levels of e‐business than prior studies, suggesting sophisticated use of e‐business was limited, especially within the smaller SME size classifications.

To achieve increased e‐business uptake, it is critical that there is a long‐term strategic vision by policy makers to ensure coordinated action by relevant public and private sector groups. Short‐term strategies must be avoided and policy makers must drive an agenda for change by ensuring bodies, such as enterprises support agencies, academia and public and private sectors undertake complimentary activities that encourage e‐business adoption. This study will be of value to academia, the SME community and key public sector stakeholders in the formulation of policy for e‐business development and deployment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal and external corporate branding activities of micro-sized industrial business services companies.

An abductive research approach and a case study method were used. Data were gathered with thematic interviews from three sources, a case company, its distributors, and its end customers.

A model for building a corporate brand identity and image in a micro-sized industrial business services company was devised. Key activities, including defining company values and the business idea, designing, managing and stabilizing the service process, utilizing holistic corporate communications, networking as well as activating and retaining stakeholders and utilizing feedback, to build a corporate brand were identified.

As the importance of the internal branding can be presumed to rise with headcount, the repeatability of this study is weakened by the case organization being a micro company. Several suggestions for future research can be made based on this study: the causality of the presented model ' s connections with quantitative methods, the network branding and service company brand hierarchies.

This paper shows how a micro company can build its brand, without deploying extra resources. Moreover, it suggests ways of utilizing external resources, by exploring how the company ' s stakeholders can participate in the branding process.

This study expands the service branding literature to industrial services micro companies by identifying activities that they can undertake.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the case of a major knowledge transfer project conducted over seven years within a region of the UK.

As part of this project a large survey is conducted on an annual basis which aims to track eBusiness adoption amongst small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region and the effects of such adoption upon regional development.

The paper presents findings from this longitudinal study and discusses these findings in terms of conceptions of eBusiness and the importance of developing more sophisticated instruments for assessing eBusiness maturity amongst SMEs. From the research there is clear evidence of the role of eBusiness adoption as a driver of regional development. The benefits from the initial Opportunity Wales programme are still materializing several years after the completion of the first three years of the seven year project.

This is a study of one region in Europe. Further regional cases are required to support the findings.

The findings should help regional planners and national governments assess the value of eBusiness initiatives.

This paper describes the case of a programme funded by the European Union involved with the transfer of eBusiness knowledge to SMEs conducted over the period April 2001 to September 2007 within a major region of the UK. The scope of the research project and its longitudinal nature make the study original.

Implementing global traceability standards (GTSs) facilitates interoperability in food supply chains (FSCs). The purpose of this paper is to present incentives, opportunities and requirements for implementing GTSs in a fresh FSC.

The research was developed in two stages: a literature review was conducted to establish a theoretical framework; and then an in-depth case study of a Swedish fresh fish supply chain was conducted. The Kano methodology was used to evaluate opportunities based on implementation requirements in each enterprise.

FSC enterprises implement a GTS to meet legal food traceability requirements. This incentive is stronger among enterprises upstream in the FSC than among downstream enterprises. Downstream enterprises emphasize communication with the end consumer as an incentive to implement a GTS. Implementing a GTS increases the opportunity to preserve end consumer confidence, efficiency in information sharing, reduces time in inventory management and the risk of theft.

The paper contributes to the field of food traceability by providing knowledge regarding incentives, opportunities and requirements for implementing standards to meet food traceability requirements at FSC enterprises.

Regulatory requirements on traceability preservation of food safety, quality and sustainability stipulate the implementation of a GTS. The research presented can support managers in understanding incentives and opportunities for implementing a GTS.

This paper combines in-depth academic research with the involvement of Swedish fresh food enterprises. The study is of benefit to fresh food enterprises, authorities and organizations in the further implementation and development of GTSs.

This paper details work undertaken to identify and assess the skills needs of small, especially food‐related, independent retailers in the United Kingdom. The paper, part of a European Social Fund (ESF) assisted project: “Towards a healthy high street (II)”, considers the specific skills areas deemed to be lacking at present in the sector. From this, higher‐level learning materials will be developed which relate to the skills areas identified. The prime source of evidence for skills needs identification draws upon research undertaken as part of two previous ESF projects. The key aim of this paper is to combine and articulate the findings from this earlier ESF research with material published by practitioners, academics and government pertaining to the provision of training in this vital sector of the economy. Three key areas upon which to focus training in the sector are explored: “Building and sustaining competitive advantage”, “E‐commerce” and “Retail operations”.

This study aims to explore the relationships, direct and indirect, between business customers’ perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty.

The study was set in the business banking industry, with data collected from 381 micro-enterprise business customers of a large South African bank by means of a self-administered, internet-based questionnaire.

The results reveal that business customers’ perception of value results in both economic and non-economic satisfaction. The results further indicate that non-economic satisfaction mediates the relationship between economic satisfaction and behavioural loyalty.

The study contributes to business services marketing literature by taking a multidimensional approach to the traditional value-satisfaction-loyalty chain.

The study contributes to business services marketing literature by emphasising the importance of perceived value in driving both economic and social outcomes, which, in turn, drives behavioural outcomes. By providing evidence of the outcomes associated with higher perceived value, service providers gain insights into the importance of focussing on value creation and the building of personal connections with micro-sized businesses to ensure future repurchase behaviour.

This research expands on current value research by positioning economic and non-economic satisfaction and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty as outcomes of business customers’ perceived value. This is possibly the first study to investigate satisfaction and loyalty as outcomes of perceived value where both comprise two distinct dimensions.

Street economy is the presentation of commercial, artistic goods, and services in streets, sidewalks, squares, public spaces, and other open spaces, without being bound to a fixed place, by standing or walking. Although there are not many written studies on the street economy and the issue has started to come to the agenda yet, it has made it difficult to provide sources in this field. One of the examples of a micro entrepreneurship in which we encounter in everyday life often comes from street vendors. As micro entrepreneurs, their having having social rights and security is an important issue both for Turkey and also the world. In this context, the purpose of the study is to determine the level of behaviour and attitudes of the citizens living in Amasya and Bursa provinces against – the street economy – the workforce space where society witnesses one-on-one. Research within itself includes the examination of written documents, observation, and interview methods. The information obtained was evaluated based on the questionnaire. Document scanning, survey study and data collection, interviews with street vendors, and citizens living in the provinces were conducted in Turkish and English between 2016 and 2020. The study included 79 people in total, 59.5% from Amasya and 40.5% from Bursa. The obtained data as a result of the research were evaluated through the SPSS statistical program, the findings obtained were interpreted through tables, the results of the two provinces were compared, and various suggestions were made.