Business support as regulatory context: exploring the enterprise industry

This chapter examines the interactions of formal and informal forms of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) business support, characterised as interactions within an ‘enterprise industry’. An analysis of the interactions revealed in the existing literature for different forms of business support develops a new conceptual framework for understanding those varied forms of external influence targeted at SMEs that constitute and extend a ‘patchwork quilt’ of provision. This chapter focuses on how different forms of support and advice interact, the centrality of state influence and how such interactions can be considered part of a firm’s regulatory context. This conceptualisation allows consideration of both business support and state regulations to move beyond conceptions of positive or negative impacts on factors such as firm growth. Instead it establishes a conceptual lens for considering how the different forms of external influence can shape the practices and attitudes of SMEs and their owner-managers. Policy-makers and organisations within the enterprise industry seeking to develop effective forms of support or regulation should not consider such activities in isolation or in simple, decontextualised positive or negative terms

Contesting the history and politics of enterprise and entrepreneurship

Enterprise and entrepreneurship are frequently constructed within political discourse in terms of economic growth and prosperity. In the UK, for example, the cross-party political consensus on the value of 'the entrepreneur' ensures that this hegemony is rarely questioned. Instead, claims about the creation of economic growth and prosperity through entrepreneurship are repeated to the point that alternative ways of thinking about and doing business start-up and growth fall into disuse, limiting the scope for debate and opportunity. There is a danger that ideologically driven approaches that draw on the neoliberalism of free markets, deregulation and privatization but also, in turn, individualism and risk, produce accounts of entrepreneurship that are constrained by being 'caught within a network of social, historical and economic forces' (Ogbor, 2000: 624). These accounts create normative understandings that denigrate and exclude alternatives such as non-profit and more collective endeavours. Despite some valuable interventions that seek to question and critique the assumptions of enterprise and small business discourses (for example, Dannreuther and Perren, 2013; Du Gay, 1996; Jones and Spicer, 2009; Keat and Abercrombie, 1991), this review of three recent books on enterprise and entrepreneurship suggests that a need remains for more critical, socially oriented approaches.An extended review essay (peer reviewed)

Understanding the firm-level effects of regulation on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) represent an important part of the UK economy. The impact of regulation on these firms is important to understand, especially amid frequent claims that SMEs are disproportionately affected by regulatory costs and that regulation may hamper business growth. We searched major databases for relevant empirical research on the firm-level effects of regulation on SME growth. This search found that there is still very little firm-level empirical evidence of the effects regulation has on SME growth. While cutting red tape and bureaucracy is broadly welcomed as beneficial for business growth, there is very little evidence demonstrating how or when it impacts on SME growth at a firm level. It is necessary to fully understand these effects in terms of their dynamic, direct and indirect influences in order to appreciate both the ways in which they may constrain but also facilitate SME growth. Without this understanding, well-intentioned attempts to support these firms and growth-oriented owner-managers and entrepreneurs may be doomed to failure

Where does work belong anymore? The implications of intensive homebased working

Purpose: The purpose of this ‘thought piece’ is to consider the everyday realities of homebased working and the implications for work during a global pandemic and beyond. Approach: We present a conceptual framework for considering the domestic sphere as a social space and apply this framework to consider the existing evidence base on homebased working. In particular, we consider the implications of homebased working during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of gender. Findings: We identify key challenges in relation to flexibility, work intensification and socio-economic differences. Consideration of these areas highlights the potential pitfalls and challenges that are likely to persist as many organisations begin to plan for an increase in homebased working. Originality: We argue that some commentators have been too quick to celebrate the apparent successes of the sudden, unplanned move to intensive homebased working. Important differences in occupation, gender and other socio-economic factors will have important implications for the experience of homebased working for many workers and their co-residents.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Collaboration in entrepreneurship education: challenges, opportunities and innovations

This introduction to the Special Issue sketches out some potential areas for collaboration and innovation in the various domains of entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneurial university. It introduces the articles included in the Special Issue and briefly describes how they provide valuable insights into the variety of forms of collaboration that are of relevance to entrepreneurship education in a range of contexts. The authors provide different perspectives on the challenges facing entrepreneurship education and HEIs, different forms of collaboration, and different opportunities for innovation that may arise as a result. The Special Issue includes international examples of such innovations in entrepreneurship education with a view to establishing fresh ideas and insights that may be of wider application within the education, entrepreneurship, HEI, and policy communities

Identity as a category of theory and practice

Identity has emerged as a major theme in management and organisation studies. This is perhaps unsurprising since questions of who one is or who one might become are particularly important in organisational settings (Watson, 2008). An insightful and widely cited introduction to a special issue in the journal Organization by Alvesson, Ashcraft and Thomas note that ‘Identity has become a popular frame through which to investigate a wide array of phenomena […] linked to nearly everything: from mergers, motivation and meaning-making to ethnicity, entrepreneurship and emotions to politics, participation and project teams’ (2008: 5). They suggest that the concept’s adoption reflects an academic fashion but argue that its popularity is predominantly due to identity’s widespread application and its value for a range of different perspectives, including functionalist, interpetivist and critical approaches. Given its widespread and varied use in management and organisation studies, the concept of identity itself seems worthy of consideration and critical reflection.Generally, the adoption of identity to understand organisations and develop organisation theory has been taken up unproblematically. This is in contrast to other areas of study such as ethnicity where questioning identity has a longer and more powerful tradition (see, for example, Gleason, 1983; Brubaker and Cooper, 2000). Identity and Capitalism by Marie Moran represents a fascinating review of a range of these literatures, drawing out some of the often unquestioned or obscured limitations in identity scholarship that may also be of relevance and value to management and organisation studies. This review will follow Moran in outlining a contested history of the concept of identity before highlighting key debates and discussing what emerges from this critique which is, for Moran, the need to consider identity as a category of practice.Output Type: Book Revie

Regulations can burden small businesses but our research shows they can also help them grow

First Paragraph: A couple of weeks before her short stint as prime minister ended, Liz Truss delivered on a pledge to tackle what some – including Truss – saw as red tape holding back “thousands of growing businesses” in the UK. The move focused on exempting small businesses from certain regulations to help stimulate growth. It involved expanding the government’s definition of “small business” to release “thousands of UK businesses” from reporting requirements and regulations.https://theconversation.com/regulations-can-burden-small-businesses-but-our-research-shows-they-can-also-help-them-grow-19348

Negotiating Gendered Ageing:Intersectional Reflexivity and Experiences of Incongruity of Self-Employed Older Women

This article analyses the experiences of self-employed older women. Developing an intersectional reflexivity approach, our analysis shows how older women negotiate their concerns in relation to gendered ageing and realize self-employment. Our study reveals three practices: ‘Expressing the self’, ‘Exploring learning’ and ‘Embracing solidarity’. We contribute to the neglected intersection of gender and age in studies of work, and to an appreciation of the transformational potential of self-employment for older women

Regulations can burden small businesses but our research shows they can also help them grow

First Paragraph: A couple of weeks before her short stint as prime minister ended, Liz Truss delivered on a pledge to tackle what some – including Truss – saw as red tape holding back “thousands of growing businesses” in the UK. The move focused on exempting small businesses from certain regulations to help stimulate growth. It involved expanding the government’s definition of “small business” to release “thousands of UK businesses” from reporting requirements and regulations

Small business revivalism: employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises

This e-special issue focuses on employment relations in the context of ‘small business revivalism’ and an ‘enterprise culture’ that has sought to establish a so-called ‘entrepreneurial economy’. Economic restructuring and other political, social and economic changes in the 1970s and 1980s led to an increase in the number and prominence of small and medium-sized enterprises, with implications for the working lives of many people who are now more likely to work as selfemployed, freelancers or members of smaller organizations. This e-special issue presents research from Work, employment and society that considers important elements of these changes, including debates about the influences of businesses’ external and internal environments, family relations and government policy. This introduction provides a general overview of the field of employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises and the 11 articles included in the e-special issue