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This article explores the different approaches taken to environmental regulation of the small firm in the UK and The Netherlands and the relationship of such regulation with the attitudes of small business owner‐managers. Using evidence from 40 interviews with businesses in both countries, we contrast the engagement and orientation of these enterprises with the business‐environment agenda. In both countries, government rhetoric stresses the harmony between business and environmental objectives: on the ground, attitudes of owner‐managers stress that these goals are far from complementary. In the UK, owner‐managers feel that environmental issues are a legitimate area of concern, but government should take the lead in addressing business‐environmental issues. Here, businesses are reacting to a policy context where environmental issues are seen as either a cost on the business, or presented as having simplistic win‐win outcomes. Businesses themselves, however, perceive it very much as an additional burden. In The Netherlands, SMEs have been targeted by the State by joint regulation through legislation, licensing and voluntary initiatives. This results in generally higher levels of environmental care. Small firms in The Netherlands appear to have accepted the importance of this and their shared responsibility for environmental care. In view of the shifting business‐environment policy debate in the UK, it is unlikely that the current reliance on voluntary initiatives and economic incentives will bear fruit. Different approaches may need, therefore, to be explored.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) performance and particularly, growth.

This paper utilises an original data set of 360 SMEs employing 5‐249 people to run logit regression models of employment growth, turnover growth and profitability. The models include characteristics of the businesses, the owner‐managers and their strategies.

The results suggest that size and age of enterprise dominate performance and are more important than strategy and the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owner. Having a business plan was also found to be important.

The results contribute to the development of theoretical and knowledge bases, as well as offering results that will be of interest to research and policy communities. The results are limited to a single survey, using cross‐sectional data.

The findings have a bearing on business growth strategy for policy makers. The results suggest that policy measures that promote the take‐up of business plans and are targeted at younger, larger‐sized businesses may have the greatest impact in terms of helping to facilitate business growth.

A novel feature of the models is the incorporation of entrepreneurial traits and whether there were any collaborative joint venture arrangements.

MR. SNOWDEN'S economy speech last month has had its effect on local authorities generally and will not be without reactions upon libraries. We have already heard of several instances where a raid has been made upon public library estimates, in one or two cases quite drastic ones. The danger is that the generally economical past working of libraries will be ignored and retrenchments be made which do real injury. At a time such as this the enemies of libraries—there are still a few of them—become righteously articulate in the interests of what they call economy, which is generally to cut down the other fellow's expenditure.

THE article which we publish from the pen of Mr. L. Stanley Jast is the first of many which we hope will come from his pen, now that he has release from regular library duties. Anything that Mr. Jast has to say is said with originality even if the subject is not original; his quality has always been to give an independent and novel twist to almost everything he touches. We think our readers will find this to be so when he touches the important question of “The Library and Leisure.”

The old snobbery in regard to public libraries expressed itself in the phrase “the provision of the illiterate for the illiterate by the illiterate” —a phrase which is too literate to have had any but an easily recognizable origin. It was always hypocritical or ignorant, or both, of course, but the snobbery it reflected has faded into its true values today. Recent careful analyses of the registers of a few public libraries go to show that the greater number of readers are actual ratepayers, and many of them substantial ones. The old fear of the “free” library with its charity associations has gone, except perhaps in such quarters as originated the phrase quoted above. A fair reflection of this was a remark in a very recent public case where the counsel asked a witness who complained that she had “to get pocket money to buy books” if she did not know of free libraries, and the presiding Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich remarked that he had obtained books from the County Library. On all sides, too, we hear that the issues from public libraries at this Easier have surpassed all records.

We learn from various sources that the Cambridge Conference arrangements are well in hand. It is many years since the Library Association gathered in body at either Oxford or Cambridge and the event should therefore be of universal interest. On one point it has a special interest, for the President will be Mr. Jast, the first municipal librarian to hold our highest office for many years past; and no one will do otherwise than rejoice at the somewhat tardy honour thus to be paid him. Cambridge itself is making first‐class history in that it is about to build a new University Library, the elevation of which—and it is a most imposing one—has been published in The Observer and probably elsewhere. Moreover, the university city with its colleges, halls, libraries and quite glamorous history from the literary point of view, offers librarians more than most people the ideal place of meeting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how women small business owners’ (SBOs) business start-up motivations influence their network content.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 women SBOs who were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Interview data on their start-up motivations were used to categorise them into three types: classic, forced and work-family. The interviews explored the network contents of the three categories of participants.

There were many similarities between network contents of classic and forced SBOs, as both groups had started their business for financial reasons rather than family reasons. All the participants’ networks contained information and advice, economic transactions, intangible support and strong ties. However, the sources and types of network content were different for the classic and forced SBOs when compared to work-family SBOs.

This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size. However, the findings lay the groundwork for future quantitative studies that examine associations between SBOs’ motivations for starting a business and their network contents.

This research responds to calls for studies aimed at developing a more nuanced understanding of SBOs’ networking behaviour. The study provides empirical evidence of a relationship between the motivations for starting a business and the network content of SBOs. The findings can be used by businesswomen’s network organisations in their mentoring and training interventions.

This study aims to investigate the uptake and usage patterns of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by women small business owners (SBOs).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 women SBOs who were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Interview data on communication technologies participants used were broken down into six main categories: internet search, internet advertising, online transactions, telephone, email and fax. Participants were also asked questions regarding proximity between them and different business contacts, and whether technology influenced how they communicated with these individuals.

All participants had moved up from having a basic website to transacting goods and services online. ICTs were used to acquire tangible and intangible resources as well as for informal learning. Geographical distance between SBOs and individuals within their business and convenience of ICT failed to affect participants’ preference for face-to-face communication with key business contacts.

This study has limitations that tend to be commonly found in exploratory studies, such as a small sample size. However, the findings lay the groundwork for future quantitative studies that examine the potential influence of other factors, such as gender and culture, on adoption of ICT by SBOs.

This study responds to a call for research that develops a more nuanced understanding of how women SBOs use ICTs in their business. The findings can be used by policymakers and development agencies in their teaching and training interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to test a conceptual framework explaining the role of relationships and trust in enabling the purchase of business advice by small business owner–managers from their external accountants.

The study uses a semi-structured interview approach with 20 small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and accountants in London and Melbourne.

The interview data support the conceptual framework’s central proposition that relationships and trust, rather than being antecedents of demand for advice, are necessary conditions for enabling latent demand. SMEs with greater propensity to trust are more open to buying business advice but not necessarily from their accountant.

A limitation of the fieldwork is that it is based on a non-random and limited sample of accountants and SMEs.

Accountants in public practice can no longer assume that the already established relationships with their clients, developed while providing compliance services, will automatically lead SME clients to purchase business advice.

The paper contributes to the accounting literature by developing a conceptual model of relationships and trust that will assist the profession in better understanding the complex dynamics of the accountant–client relationship. The conceptual model distinguishes, for the first time, the antecedent factors of demand for business advice from the enabling roles of relationships and trust. Fieldwork interviews also yielded new insights into how SMEs’ decisions to purchase business advice are influenced by specific personality traits of SME owner–managers and additional antecedent demand factors not identified in the extant literature – economic conditions, environmental turbulence and business life-cycle.