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The purpose of this chapter is to further flesh out the small business strategy insight presented in the previous chapter through focus on the finer micro detail of what is actually done and by who in small business strategic management practice. The authors build forward their previous chapter response to deficiencies of understanding within the strategy and small business literatures, through provision of rich, thick description of best small business strategic management process and practice. And shine a brighter light into what has to date been a ‘black box’ of haze with regard to the fine detail and minutia of managerial, organisational and work activities that make up strategy process and content.

As in the previous chapter, the research approach is underpinned and informed by personal construct theory which gives emphasis to the highly complex nature of the task of small business strategic control and highlights the need for a creative and innovative research methodology to facilitate close and detailed investigation of the phenomenon.

This chapter is of significant practical relevance: offering guiding lenses and informing frameworks with regard to best small business strategic management process – and making explicit the micro-level actions, activities and behaviours which make up that process. These guiding frames are already being used to support growth-seeking owner managers in the UK and Africa. The knowledge base embraces original, valuing-adding work which addresses a major void in the current strategic management and small business literatures and is currently being utilised to help address unemployment and facilitate poverty reduction in Africa and underpin entrepreneurship development worldwide.

The purpose of this study is to examine corporate philanthropy from the perspective of small business owner‐managers to find out whether there is room for altruism in business life.

This study is based on 25 thematic interviews with small business owner‐managers. The data analysis is based on a method of qualitative content analysis.

Based on the analysis, it is shown that reactivity, an emphasis on personal interests, the willingness to utilize philanthropy as part of marketing and lack of planning are typical of philanthropy in the small business context. Small businesses often emphasize strategic business reasons as the main motive for their philanthropic engagements. Nevertheless, in some cases the philanthropic decisions are based on mere willingness to contribute to the welfare of others. Thus, the paper suggests that there is room for altruism in the small business context. The existence of altruism in the context of small business philanthropy is closely related to owner‐managers' values and business ambitions. Indeed, the organizational context does not usually hinder the existence of altruism to any great extent among small businesses, as it might do in the large business context. Similarly, based on the results of this study, the authors suggest that close relationships between a small business and its stakeholders increase the probability of altruism in business.

It is acknowledged that corporate philanthropy is but one possible context in which to study altruism.

The study provides useful information on whether there is room for altruism in business life from the perspective of small business owner‐managers.

The purpose of this paper is to learn more about how regulation affects small business in the Finnish context. The authors create a framework for understanding owner-managers’ attitudes towards business legislation. It is authors’ understanding that not enough is known about how small firms make strategic choices that drive business in a highly regulated environment.

This paper contributes to the existing knowledge of entrepreneurship and small business management. The empirical data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from the postal survey. Differences between owner-managers’ attitudes towards business regulation were identified with factor and cluster analyses methods.

Regulation often exerts only a limited influence over owner-managers’ decision-making. Family entrepreneurs are more compliant towards business regulation. Regulation is not too heavy a burden to all in business in Finland, even though Finland is a highly regulated country.

The real impact of regulation on small firms’ performance is really difficult to prove, because small firms operating in the same regulatory context have different performance outcomes. Additionally, often owner-managers’ awareness of specific regulations is limited.

There could be gap between the presumed effect of policymakers and the real effect of regulation among owner-managers. In Finland, policymakers should find other motivations to encourage business than lightening the regulatory burden. They should concentrate more providing external support to small firms in the form of information, training and financing new small firms.

It is authors’ understanding that not enough is known about how small firms make strategic choices that drive business in a highly regulated environment.

This paper aims to examine the impact of owners/managers of small businesses participating in entrepreneurship programs on operational efficiency and growth of small businesses.

It is a cross‐sectional study analysis of the impact of exposure of owner‐managers of small businesses on their performance (i.e. operational efficiency and growth rate) in a non‐contrived environment. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the analysis and the degree of error is α=0.05.

Small businesses, whose owner‐managers who have the experience of participating in entrepreneurship programs, exhibited superior managerial practice; hence, a higher gross‐margin and rate of growth than small businesses whose owner‐managers did not have such experiential learning.

The members of the National Association of Small Scale Industrialists, Lagos Chapter served as the population for the study. The membership strength was 224 and all were contacted; however, only 62 members responded. Considering the fact that this is 62 firms not just 62 individuals, it looks reasonably large. A possible area for future research is the comparative study of the impacts of the frequency of participation and variants of entrepreneurship programs on performance of small businesses.

There is a need to improve the managerial practice of small businesses through exposure of owners/managers to entrepreneurship programs in order to enhance their performance and their transition to medium and large businesses.

The paper developed an experiential learning‐performance framework to examine the impact of entrepreneurship programs on performance of small businesses and linked higher operational efficiency and growth rate to better managerial practice, a fall‐out of experiential learning from exposure to entrepreneurship programs.

The paper aims to examine the management practices of owner‐managers of small businesses seeking to grow their firms. It seeks to better understand their strategic thinking in relation to internal and external environmental issues.

A sample of 204 owner‐managers who had indicated their desire for growth was surveyed using a questionnaire developed from earlier research that examined their strategic and operational behaviour. Follow‐up discussions over their results were conducted face‐to‐face. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and discriminant analysis.

Firms that possessed formal written business plans were found to be more likely to have stronger support network partnerships, formal quality assurance and the ability to lead change among employees. A relationship was found between an above average level of annual sales turnover and the personal vision of the owner‐managers.

Although the sample was atypical, in that it was comprised of owner‐managers who had a growth orientation, the study suggests that owner‐managers who have a strong growth orientation are likely to have an enhanced sense of their strategic vision, and the ability to communicate this vision to their employees.

The findings in this paper suggest that owner‐managers from small firms should seek to benchmark their business against industry best practice, but that such benchmarking must be supported by a clear strategic vision and the capacity to communicate this vision to others, particularly employees.

The literature relating to strategic thinking and behaviour within small firms remains underdeveloped, and this paper provides valuable insights into this area.

The purpose of this research is to show that while mainstream finance for small businesses has been researched, hard to reach segments of the UK owner/manager population have eluded empirically rigorous investigation. The authors investigate the financing preferences of owner/managers in small ethnic minority businesses in the UK and examine their access to both formal and informal finance as well as the use of personal funding networks. The emergent results are compared with the findings from a matched “control sample” of white small business owner/managers.

Identical, in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews were used with a sample of ethnic minority small business owner/managers and a matched control sample of white respondents in the West Midlands region of the UK.

Family and close associate networks were very important for the support of both ethnic minority and white owner/managers. All the respondents required loans from banks and other financial institutions, both at the start‐up stage and in subsequent years. For the ethnic minority owner/managers, the initial importance of financial institutions declined over the years. In contrast, in the control sample, institutional borrowing needs increased considerably. Ethnic minority owner/managers showed a preference for less intrusive and more “user friendly” financing options that allow them to remain in full control of their businesses.

Caution is advised in the use and generalisation of results emerging from qualitative research that involves small samples of respondents chosen from a restricted area of the UK.

The research shows the importance of “user‐friendly” financing options for owner/managers.

This paper seeks to investigate the provision of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Small Ethnic Minority Businesses (SEMBs) operating in the West Midlands region of the UK.

A qualitative approach is employed, involving in‐depth, face‐to‐face interviews with 66 owner/managers of small ethnic minority businesses located in the West Midlands region of the UK. The research sample included 26 graduate entrepreneurs and 40 non‐graduate respondents.

Most of the SEMB owner/managers in this study exhibited a positive attitude towards VET. A large proportion of the respondents, however, admitted not to have provided any training during the previous 18 months of trading. Training provision appears to be affected by both “directly” and “indirectly” relevant factors. The majority of the SEMB owner/managers in the research sample do not have specific human resource strategies, audits, plans or related budgets, and training was offered largely on a reactive rather than proactive basis.

Caution is advised in the use and generalisation of results that emerge from qualitative research that involved a small sample of respondents chosen from a restricted area of the UK.

The paper makes an original contribution of exploring the area of vocational education and training in small ethnic minority businesses that is at the forefront of discussion in academic and industry in the UK.

Learning and knowledge in all its various forms have always played an important role in economic development. A major focus however, has been on the impact of the knowledge‐based economy on big, rather than small businesses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine whether a group of small business owner/managers participated in a range of learning activities, and if so, what those learning activities were. At the same time, the extent to which owner/managers of small businesses were aware of the knowledge‐based economy was also explored, as was the degree to which they participated in it. It was found that, participation in learning did occur, but that greater reliance was placed on informal rather than formal learning. It was also found that the understanding of the knowledge‐based economy varied considerably from those who had some knowledge of the concept, to those who had no understanding at all. While this study is regional in nature, it makes a valid contribution to the study of small business learning from a global perspective.

This paper aims to expand on existing conceptualisations of barriers to small business growth by addressing the question of how, or in what ways, do perceived barriers influence the growth intentions and behaviours of owner‐managers?

Adopting an interpretive methodological approach, in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were held with 27 owner‐managers working in St Petersburg, Russia. Participants were asked about their intentions for their businesses, how they intended to grow and what, if anything, prevented or interfered with these intentions. Template analysis was used to develop owner‐managers' perceptions and experiences of barriers to growth, and to facilitate theory building.

Six ways in which perceived barriers influence the growth intentions and behaviours of small business owner‐managers were identified. Barriers: stop owner‐managers from intending to grow; undermine intentions; add to the ambivalence around growth intentions; provide incentives to grow; postpone intention realization; and slow down the process of realizing intentions to grow.

Because data were collected at one point in time, it was not possible to capture the dynamic nature of barriers or the intentions/behaviours they influenced. Future research could be strengthened through the use of longitudinal designs and process‐based methods (e.g. diary studies).

Educators and policy makers should help owner‐managers understand the ways in which barriers can affect business growth and be overcome.

This study is the first to examine how barriers influence growth intentions and behaviours, and to facilitate theory development on the topic.

The purpose of this research is to present the results of a recent interpretive study of 11 small Central Vancouver Island firms in British Columbia, Canada, which yield new interpretations of the nature of problem‐solving processes within the wider context of managerial capability as a critical contributor to small business survival.

The methodological approach taken is positioned within an emergent body of research in the field of small business and entrepreneurship that applies an interpretive paradigm to uncover the complex facets of how individuals develop their capabilities and management practices with a particular emphasis on the small business owner‐manager. More specifically, the critical incident technique method, along with an approach to data analysis and coding that draws from grounded theory, is combined and applied as a qualitative research strategy to yield new understandings of problem solving in small firms.

Research findings reveal the intuitive, improvised and non‐linear nature of how problems are actually solved in the sample of small firms studied, in contrast with a number of well‐known theoretical research frameworks that propose well‐defined and delineated steps in the problem‐solving process.

The small sample size and the methods chosen to conduct the research do not allow for the generalization of findings to all firms, yet do allow for the emergence of themes among the businesses that participated in the study. Research could be expanded by applying a similar research design to small firms in other regions of Canada to determine whether significant differences or similarities exist and to identify the implications for research in the area of problem solving in small firms.

The identification of problems as critical incidents represents a primary focus of the research and provides a more explanatory account of problem solving from the perspective of small firm owner‐managers involved in the process. The analysis of these highly subjective interpretations represents valuable research findings that provide a basis for the development of theory on problem solving in small firms.