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A review of the literature was conducted for the period of 1976 through 1989 in an effort to identify the most effective outside services that small business consultants could use to assist their clients. Results of the review showed that small business consultants provide services that are very effective in improving business performance. In addition, small business clients report a high degree of satisfaction with the services received. A theoretical model was then proposed which highlights the importance of providing services that guide small business clients toward better analysis of their operations and better development of their human resources.

Many smaller American companies utilise management consultants for problem‐solving assistance on a project by project basis. Managerial personnel in such companies often have a unique combination of traits including a high dependence on intuition, minimal use of quantitative skills, and a hurried work style. In order to maximise the usefulness of such projects, consultants to these companies may need to make certain accommodations to managerial style and personality throughout the process. There follow some suggested guidelines for effective work in such a situation.

Outside consultants can improve the standing of small businesses but there are some problems associated with their use. Small business owners may perceive consultants as difficult to find and use, ineffective, or unsatisfactory. The present research is an effort to gain greater insight into the reasons for these beliefs by asking about owners’ experiences with consultants. A survey was mailed to a random selection of 3,000 small businesses in rural Illinois during the summer, 1991. Results suggest that the most effective and satisfying consulting services are those that guide owners to better analyze and problem solve. A theory is identified that accounts for the results and a number of practical insights are provided.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effectiveness of collaborative dialogue to support small business development in small communities.

The paper employs a case study involving collaboration using both an interpersonal network structure and an inter‐organizational project structure.

the paper finds that collaboration mobilizes local resources to fill structural and relational gaps in the local institutional environment for SMEs.

The research agenda for collaborative planning should include studying institutional factors that can hinder some actors such as small businesses from participating.

The paper provides practical experience of banks as community development actors, and identifies a potential conflict in normative collaboration theory between inclusiveness/diversity and a “higher level” institutional focus.

To assess the patterns of market orientation within the small business sector.

After a pilot study involving interviews with owner‐managers, and covert and overt observation of small businesses' marketing practices, depth interviews by telephone and face‐to‐face were conducted in one state of the USA. Data, collected in the form of protocols and means‐end maps for individual owner‐managers, were analyzed by inductive reasoning.

The study confirmed the appropriateness of the market orientation framework for the small business sector. Findings included a distinctive “marketing style” (strong emphasis on customer care and employee welfare; motivation; and market intelligence) related to size of the firms surveyed, the personality of the owner‐manager, the available resources and the nature of the operating environment. Despite absence of a formal approach to market research and marketing planning, this “style” was found to have a positive effect on margins and market share.

Future studies could usefully investigate larger samples in broader geographic settings, including countries at all stages of economic development. It should also examine causal links among the “constructs” of market orientation.

The findings provide small business owner‐managers, policy makers and researchers with a framework for the measurement and evaluation of market orientation in small businesses, which could be adapted to specific conditions or used as a source of performance benchmarks.

This paper offers useful and candid insights into the application of market orientation by small businesses, distilled from in‐depth investigation of the motivations underlying respondents' marketing decisions and initiatives. It thus supplements the largely quantitative studies of market orientation in the literature to date.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of social capital of non-resident family members on small business debt financing. Recent literature in entrepreneurship suggests that small businesses can borrow social capital to improve their access to debt financing.

Micro-entrepreneurs from India were interviewed regarding their ability to raise capital from family members as well as their relationship with banks and politicians.

The survey indicates that small business entrepreneurs are able to borrow social capital from non-resident Indians. Results also suggest that these small businesses are more likely to be connected to banks and politicians facilitated by their non-resident family members, which not only improves micro-entrepreneurs’ access to debt financing but also reduces their cost of borrowing.

This is a co-relational study that investigates the association between social capital of non-resident family members and small business debt financing. There is not necessarily a causal relationship between the two. The findings of this study may only be generalized to firms similar to those that were included in this research.

This study contributes to the literature on the factors that improve the access to small business debt financing. The findings may be useful for financial managers, investors, financial management consultants, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders.

This paper explains what business planning is and why it is being criticized. It differentiates between business planning (which focuses on the strategic development of the small firm or business unit) and corporate planning (which deals with the strategic direction and activities of the bigger, multi‐operation corporation). Ultimately, the paper comes to the defence of business planning by identifying where and how it can still be a useful tool for organizational leaders to employ in their job and primary drivers of the strategic development function. The secret of successful business planning is to use it in appropriate contexts as one aspect of a more comprehensive repertoire of strategic leadership approaches and to avoid the pitfalls which detract from its otherwise efficacy.

Microcomputer technology and spreadsheet software are widely available to small businesses and offer the small firm owner a means of planning more effectively and efficiently. A survey of the planning practices of electronic spreadsheet owners reveals a gap between ownership of the planning tools and their effective use. The study shows the importance of preplanning the purchase of software, of motivation to plan, and of tailoring planning systems to the goal orientation of the firm in order to effectively use the electronic spreadsheet as a small business planning tool.