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This paper aims to map the knowledge management research in small businesses and suggest future actions to strengthen managerial practices. Knowledge management practices foster the growth of small businesses. They allow innovation to grow within the institutions, enhance customer satisfaction and reduce employee absenteeism and attrition.

The study adopts a bibliometric protocol to retrieve the 686 articles published in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The WoS database is selected to ensure only quality and peer-reviewed publications are analysed in the study. It then identifies the top contributions, and existing thematic areas, and suggests future research and policy actions for boosting economic growth through small business. The study uses VOSviewer, Science of Science (Sci2) and Gephi to conduct the bibliometric and network analysis.

The results from keyword co-occurrence and co-citation analysis helps in identifying thematic areas. The findings highlight that there exist five major themes in knowledge management research for small businesses. The dynamic co-citation analysis helps in tracing the evolution of these clusters and suggests future themes, research directions and methodological advances in the theme. PageRank analysis helps in identifying the top articles published on high-impact journals in the theme.

The study helps researchers by summarising existing literature and identifying key thematic areas. It also assists policymakers by recommending actions to improve knowledge management practises in small businesses to gain a competitive advantage. The paper suffers from the limitations of bibliometric analysis. The sample is collected from a single data source and a single type (journal articles) and the statistical accuracy of the analysis depends on the quality of the sample.

The study’s originality lies in using fit-for-purpose software in clustering the research and suggesting actions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of its kind in applying bibliometrics in studying and covering several aspects of knowledge management in small businesses with a combination of software.

The aim of this paper is to present the literature which identifies the characteristics of small enterprises and outlines the opportunities to utilise them in working with small businesses to prevent and reduce exposures to hazardous substances.

A search of a variety of data sources, including Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, was conducted which combined the keyword search terms “small business”, “small enterprise”, “management”, “health and safety management”, “hazardous substances”, “hazardous chemicals”, “management of hazardous substances”. High quality studies were selected and combined with studies known to the authors.

A strong body of evidence exists which shows that the management of OSH in small enterprises has been extensively reviewed and the most recurring theme is the identification of problems and challenges. A growing body of literature also confirms that models for chemical risk management and social responsibility issues can play a key role in managing hazardous chemical exposures in small enterprises. Furthermore, studies have shown that there are certain characteristics of small business that potentially provide positive opportunities for the implementation of preventive interventions.

The paper identifies these characteristics and features and suggests these can be effectively utilised in the design and development of interventions to prevent and reduce exposures to hazardous substances in small enterprises. Few interventions, however, have been developed utilising these positive characteristics.

There can be no doubt that the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) plays a pivotal role in most if not all economies, and that social policy makers have an interest in ensuring the viability of this sector of the economy, which plays a crucial role in the contract culture of national and international competitiveness. Quite apart from the essential symbiosis between the large multinationals and public limited companies and this sector, the sustainability of unemployment benefit payouts would be jeopardised should the sector experience a significant downturn. There are already worldwide concerns about the ability to continue to finance state pensions at anything like the present scale, and any loss of viability of the SME sector will simply exacerbate this situation. There are also useful reciprocations to be achieved by comparisons across sectors, including in significant areas such as internal control (Vinten, Lane, Hayes, 1996). The recent flurry of activity has included initiatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996) and the information needs of owners (Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996a), an Auditing Practices Board (1996) Practice Note, and a Department of Trade and Industry Consultation Document (DTI 1996).

One result of the recent upsurge of national, and indeed international, political interest in the small firm sector of the economy has been a focus on the role of management training and development in the small firm and on the wider, but related, issue of education and training for entrepreneurship. The basis for this renewed government attention seems to lie in recognition of the employment potential of small firms rather than in the contribution that training and education might make to productivity and efficiency. Added to the weight of official concern is pressure from individuals who, without the early possibility of becoming an employee, are being forced to look to their own resources and initiative. It is, therefore, scarcely surprising that much of the recent stimulus to small firms training has come from government training schemes and, in the UK, from local community‐based ventures aimed at improving local job prospects. The accent in the UK has been on encouraging the new small business start up.

The purpose of this paper is to show how data analytics can be used to identify areas of potential cost savings for category managers of installation-level services. Using integrated solid waste management (ISWM) as a test case, the authors also examine the impact of small business set-asides on price and contractor performance.

The authors use data analytics, specifically sequential regression, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and ordered logistic regression to investigate the influence of service- and contracting-related variables on price and contractor performance.

The authors find that service- and contracting-related variables influence price. Specifically, they identify that a service-related variable, number of containers, significantly affects price, and that two contracting-related variables, one type of small business set-aside and the number of offers received, also significantly affect price. The authors quantify the price premiums paid for using various types of small business set-asides.

Although the findings were significant, the authors believe that the robustness of the conclusions could be enhanced if the Air Force captured more data. Additional observations would increase the generalizability of the results.

This empirical experiment demonstrates that detailed analyses are required to gain insights into services’ price drivers to craft more appropriate category management strategies for installation-level services.

This empirical study shows how historical data can be used to assess price drivers of installation-level services. It is also one of the first to quantify the impact that small business set-asides have on price.

This paper examines statistically the determinants of management development in small businesses, based on the results of a survey of 389 small businesses carried out in 1996. Generally, the immediate issues concern the factors that influence the development of owners and managers of growing and sustainable small businesses, considered by many to be the source of future innovation and jobs in both developed and developing economies. More particularly, the survey is part of a wider investigation into management development in Britain, and the paper parallels a previous analysis of statistical determinants based on a survey of larger businesses. While entrepreneurship has received a lot of attention in small business research, comparatively little attention has been paid to the development of management competencies in small firms. In the study reported here, regression analyses were used to develop a more detailed understanding of the factors which shape the amount and nature of management development in small businesses. The key research questions, in line with the previous analysis, are: (1) what are the relative importance of environmental and structural factors on the one hand, and strategic factors such as internal management development policy on the other, in explaining the amount and value of management development activity? (2) what does this tell us about the degree to which management development is determined by choice or circumstance? (3) what are the “drivers” of management development and their relative significance? (4) what factors are most influential in assessing the achievement of management development objectives?

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for the systematic examination of management accounting practices in small businesses using a revenue management perspective. This highlights the multi-faceted nature of size as a contextual factor and emphasises the role of management accounting in supporting profit-oriented decision-making, rather than its traditional role of co-ordination, control, and accountability.

The framework is theoretically derived from the management accounting, revenue management, and small business literature. An illustrative case study of a small fast-food business is presented to demonstrate the applicability of this framework to practice.

The paper identifies that various dimensions of business size have different and sometimes opposing effects on management accounting practices. Given heterogeneity is a common feature of small businesses, the framework considers alternative specifications of the size contingency variable.

The synthesis of small business characteristics and revenue management perspective offers a more incisive understanding of what has traditionally been considered a simple practice. The case study illustrates some of the influences of small business characteristics identified in the framework. Given its narrow scope, the findings are used for theorisation rather than offering generalisable results. Further cross-sectional comparisons of small businesses are needed to confirm size influences.

The framework can assist practitioners to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their management accounting practices and can help assess the value of adopting more sophisticated management accounting practices, given their particular business environment. A synthesis of these small business attributes can help practitioners identify key barriers to implementation.

The revenue management perspective and the inclusion of key characteristics of small businesses provide a new approach to evaluating management accounting practices in small businesses.

This work aims to propose guidelines for small industrial businesses to take their first steps toward implementing systems, programs and tools (SPTs) for environmental management in a structured way.

The authors conducted case studies in large companies certificated ISO 14001. They ran tests for construct validity, external validity and reliability. Cross-analysis of the information collected led to identifying patterns and strategies adopted by these companies to implement environmental management. Based on the literature on environmental management in small businesses and the author's experience, the practices learned from large companies were adapted to the reality of small ones, thus resulting in the proposed guidelines.

These guidelines enable small companies to develop their environmental management following the logical evolution of SPTs: ISO 14001, green supply chain management (GSCM), cleaner production (CP) and green design (GD). The implementation should happen gradually, through the PDCA cycle, according to three specific levels of environmental evolution.

Since the guidelines focused on small industrial companies, future studies should consider other sectors, such as services, to benefit from the solutions presented. As for the implications, besides improving the small company's performance and enhancing its image, implementing the guidelines creates a green synergy along the supply chain, thus benefiting society beyond the company's borders.

The main theoretical-scientific contribution of this work is to deepen a block of knowledge that articulates environmental management and small businesses, creating a basis for further research and a reference for analyzing and discussing empirical studies in small companies. As an applied-management contribution, the guidelines allow small companies to effectively develop SPTs to move toward environmental sustainability.

This is the second and final part of an article which considers the role of the UK education sector in small firms management, education and training. The first part reviewed the changing pressures on the higher education sector which provide opportunities for its greater involvement with the owner‐managed company. It also looked closely at the needs of the “customers” for small business training and discussed how these might be usefully segmented. We now discuss the contribution of the education sector along with the “supply side” problems. The data is drawn from a survey of 80 ex‐participants of the UK Small Business Management Teachers Programme. The survey was undertaken in 1982. The objectives of this programme and its importance in the field of the small business management were discussed in the first part.

To show that the inability to adapt to a series of crises caused by business development is one of the principal causes of failure for all organisations and that one of the primary components in small business success must be the managerial competence of the principal actors, inevitably the owner‐manager.

This paper examines the divergence between the prescribed and assumed models of entrepreneurial behaviour provided by contemporary management theorists and the real, observed and reported behaviour of small business practitioners and owner‐managers. It reports on case study examples and highlights the dichotomy between expected and actual behaviour in typical management situations.

The paper suggests that the almost egotistical attitude displayed by many entrepreneurs, constitutes an abuse of the trust and the power placed in the hands of small business owner‐managers and that in extreme instances, the abuse of entrepreneurial power may lead directly to the failure of the small firm.

Many surveys of small business failure and sub‐optimal performance often suggest situational and operational causes and explanations. This paper offers a different perspective for future research because the cause may be seen to lie with the apparently non‐rational behaviour of the entrepreneur or owner‐manager who does not adhere to the “rules” and expectations of classical management theory.