The Survival Of The Small Firm Employment Growth Technology And Politics

The majority of employees currently working in the private sector are now employed in small firms, yet little is known about their working conditions. This collection of essays addresses this gap. Based on theoretical analysis supported by contemporary empirical evidence, the book explores key areas of the employment relationship adding a new perspective to our understanding of contemporary work.

The book you are about to read offers some very powerful insights into the link between entrepreneurship, industrial cooperation and the emergence of high-tech companies in Europe. It deals with the very essence of the potential that Europe can and should use in order to increase its competitiveness and retain at the same time its quality of living. From the foreword by Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science Policy Presenting original and innovative research studies with a focus on new business development in science and technology, this book highlights the role and challenge of European cooperation to create new techno-ventures and encourage them to survive and even flourish. The book is an exceptional result of a distinctive network of European and American scholars, practitioners, and members of public institutions interested in the critical issues of emergence and survival of technology and knowledge based firms. The contributors study examples from both the old EU-member states such as France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, as well as newer countries such as Slovenia and Estonia. The book is unique in bringing culture and psychology together in the particular context of the nascent technopreneur. Using a plethora of different approaches, Entrepreneurship, Cooperation and the Firm will be of great interest to innovation and entrepreneurship policy makers at governmental levels, and also to those involved in research programs on entrepreneurship, innovation and organizational change. In addition, this book will be a stimulating read for academics, researchers and practitioners both inside and outside of the classroom.

Well-managed employment relationships can be a secret to business success, yet this factor is relatively poorly understood when it comes to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s). Written by active researchers with teaching experience, this book brings together the fields of entrepreneurship and human resource management for the first time, providing entrepreneurship students with a solid grounding in HRM as well as a platform for further critical engagement with the research. The concise and authoritative style also enables the book to be used as a primer for researchers exploring this under-developed terrain. As the only student-focused specialist book on human resource management in entrepreneurial firms, this is vital reading for students and researchers in this area, as well as those interested in small business and management more generally.

"This book highlights the efforts and developments in the fields of Asian studies as well as its intentional role in IT and management within the constant growing business market"--Provided by publisher.

. . . a very significant contribution made by the book is the thoughtful, but by no means negative, counterpoint to the omniscient vision of the nascent Schumpeterian superhero. While it is well grounded theoretically, it remains a highly accessible and an engaging read. . . An authoritative and informative account. Lorraine Warren, International Small Business Journal . . . a rich text for expert and non-expert alike. Down makes a valuable addition to the field of enterprise research by highlighting the value of empirical studies of narrative-identity for representing the quieter voices of entrepreneurial activity which he hopes challenge the naysayers . Andrew Greenman, Work, Employment and Society Engagingly written, this sparkling account of the ebb and flow of workaday entrepreneurship injects real life into a field that is too often cluttered by arid enumerators and profilers of irrelevancies. There is space for the accomplished storyteller to provide everyday entrepreneurs with their place in the sun. In this stimulating book, Simon Down marks out this territory in an exemplary fashion. Monder Ram, De Montfort University, UK Writing about small firms all too often bores us with rather abstract survey-based data, irritates us with anecdotal snippets or frustrates us with un-theorised and over-detailed descriptions. Simon Down not only avoids these problems, he delights us with a rich, detailed and entertaining account of life in a small firm. Above all, though, his account is informative and revealing, especially about the entrepreneurial aspects of small firm life and what this means for the people involved. Tony J. Watson, Nottingham University, UK Simon Down s timely ethnographic study takes a philosophically reflective and empirically detailed look at the way in which enterprising people use narrative resources to construct their identity as entrepreneurs. The book draws on a wide range of intellectual sources, from naturalistic philosophy and social-psychology to sociology and organisational theory. Written in a strong narrative style, the book succeeds in making the often complex and inaccessible theories on self-identity easy to understand and convincing in relation to other notions of individual agency. Social aspects of self-identity are examined and elaborated on via the development of concepts such as clichés, generations, space and relationships. These concepts are, in turn, drawn from the narrative, temporal, spatial and relational frameworks through which individuals express self-identity. Neither super-heroes nor villains, the case-study entrepreneurs in Narratives of Enterprise emerge as normal people who seek to make sense of the world through their enterprising activity. Providing a much needed and sophisticated empirical benchmark in a range of debates current in enterprise and organisation studies, this highly accessible book is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of self-identity and the character of the entrepreneur.

Work and Enterprise Culture examines the world of work in the light of the major changes that have occurred over the last decade. In particular, the book focuses on what is understood by the term the ‘enterprise culture’ and considers what impact, if any, this concept has on traditional work practices. A major feature of the book is that the essays also address questions of equal opportunity on grounds of gender and race, and examine the effects of the coming of the ‘enterprise culture’ has had on these concerns.