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

Informality and employment relationships in small firms: humour, ambiguity and straight-talking

This paper presents in-depth qualitative research on three small professional service firms whose owner-managers sought to introduce greater degrees of formality in their firms’ working practices and employment relationships. We focus on humour as an ambiguous medium of informality, yet viewed by owner-managers as a tool at their disposal. However, while early studies of humour in small and medium-sized enterprises support such a functionalist view, our findings indicate its significant limitations. We argue that humour obscures but does not resolve disjunctive interests and it remains stubbornly ambiguous and resistant to attempts to functionalize it. Our findings contribute to studies of humour in small and medium-sized enterprises by challenging its utility as a means of managerial control or employee resistance. They also contribute to studies of employment relationships by exploring humour's potentially disruptive influence within the formality–informality span, especially as small and medium-sized enterprises seek greater degrees of formalization, with implications for how those relationships are conducted and (re)negotiated on an ongoing basis

From entrepreneur to owner-manager

The demands of not only starting but building a business commonly invoke the independence, risk-taking and dynamism associated with entrepreneurs. However it can be argued that, as enterprises grow, mature and become more established, the role of everyday business management requires a different set of skills, or areas of emphasis, from those associated with a start-up. This Chapter focuses on the challenging transformation from the start-up phase to the everyday management of a business with employees. Importantly, this involves adapting to the demands placed upon an owner-manager, the need for demonstrating leadership and for engaging with employment relationships

Putting the Agent into Research in Black and Minority Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A New Methodological Proposal

This paper considers what realist social theory (RST) can add to existing knowledge about black and minority ethnic (BME) entrepreneurs and outlines a methodology for exploring the role of the BME entrepreneur. For this group, embodied signifiers such as skills and abilities, cultural characteristics, social norms, and value systems combine with structural antecedents, such as financial, contractual, professional, and other national and regional institutional arrangements to create impediments on the progression of BME enterprises. Understanding such complex social arrangements presents significant ontological and methodological challenges. We argue that previous research has failed to capture the richness of the forms of agency BME entrepreneurs display and that, as a consequence, RST has much to offer this debate. The paper ends with a discussion of the methodological implications of analysing BME entrepreneurs in terms of their social agency

Pan-European entrepreneurial summer academies with impact: The case of STARTIFY7

© 2017 by Emerald Publishing Limited.Entrepreneurship is viewed as essential to the future prosperity of Europe and creating societies that are socially and economically inclusive. The information communication technology (ICT) sector has been identified as an area of great entrepreneurial potential for Europe and yet the continent struggles to create global leaders in the digital startup space. In response to this challenge, the European Commission launched its Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan to stimulate and support young people to become entrepreneurs and exploit the potential of ICT, in terms developing new digital products and services. This chapter reports on a project to develop and deliver a series of pan-European summer academies for entrepreneurship training funded by Horizon 2020. The chapter details the process of developing the academies and offer reflections on the impacts of the project

Work engagement and the impact of a social identity crafting approach to leadership: A case from Africa's air transport industry

Purpose Managers of public organizations in liberalized sectors face the dual imperative of retaining skilled employees who might be poached by commercial competitors, and improving service performance levels, without a free hand to invest resources. While employee work engagement has been previously suggested as a solution to such management challenges, limitations in its ability to retain employees have been identified. We therefore examine how a social identity crafting approach to public leadership that confers a sense of group identity among team members, can enhance and extend beyond employee work engagement in addressing this dual imperative. Design/methodology/approach We report findings from a survey of employees (n = 199) in 'ATCO' a state-owned national airline that is facing challenges from commercial rivals within a new, competitive environment.Findings We confirm previously identified limitations of employee work engagement and, further, demonstrate that a social identity approach to leadership offers a promising avenue for public managers not only by enhancing employee engagement but more importantly enhancing retention and service performance. Originality We contribute to studies of leadership, particularly for managers operating in the public sector and resource constrained environments, demonstrating how social identity crafting, which does not require costly investment to attain, can deliver improved service performance and reduced employee turnover intention, operating beyond employee work engagement which reaches a plateau in respect of the latter

How do regulations affect SMEs? A review of the qualitative evidence and a research agenda

The effects of regulations on SMEs have garnered significant political attention internationally yet, in the academic literature, these effects remain contested. This article presents findings from a systematic literature review of qualitative evidence on the effects of regulation on SMEs. We set out the strengths of qualitative approaches in relation to other, more dominant and influential quantitative approaches. We conduct a thematic synthesis of the qualitative research to develop a conceptual framework that provides a processual, embedded understanding of the effects of regulations on SMEs. The conceptual framework highlights four key, interconnected processes: identification-interpretation; strategisation; negotiation; adaptation. This conceptual framework generates insights into dynamic and potentially indirect effects of regulations in relation to a complex array of influences external to and within the business. On the basis of these insights we propose a new research agenda

The spatial implications of homeworking: a Lefebvrian approach to the rewards and challenges of home-based work

In this theoretical article we propose an approach to the spatial implications of homeworking derived from the work of social theorist Henri Lefebvre. By highlighting the processes involved in the inherently contested and (re)constructed nature of space in the demarcated home/work environment we draw on Lefebvre to suggest a collapse of this demarcation. We consider the impact of such a collapse on questions relating to the rewards and challenges of home-based work for both workers and their co-residents. In contrast to our approach to the spatial implications of home-based work derived from Lefebvre, we argue that a traditional, Euclidean conception of space risks ignoring the important, symbolic nature of social space to the detriment of both the effective research and practice of homeworking

Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?

Significant doubts persist over the effectiveness of government policy to increase the numbers or performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK economy. We analyse UK political manifestoes from 1964-2015 to examine the development of SME policy in political discourse. We do this by analysing how the broadly-defined category of ‘SME’ has been characterised in the manifestoes and assess these characterisations in relation to the empirical evidence base. We highlight three consistent themes in UK political manifestoes during 1964-2015 where SMEs have been characterised as having the potential for growth, struggling to access finance and being over-burdened by regulation. We argue that homogenising the broad range of businesses represented by the SME category and characterising them in these terms misrepresents them, undermining policies developed in relation to this mischaracterisation

F. A. Hayek vs. J. M. Keynes in Shackle's marginal gloss

The intellectual rivalry of F.A. Hayek and J.M. Keynes has recently caught the attention of historians of economic thought, journalists and the broad public. However, how was it viewed at the time? This article uses archival material in the form of marginal annotations made by G.L.S. Shackle to determine contemporary reading responses to the theoretical developments of the 1930s. Shackle’s unique reading style that includes legible, dated, annotations and the fact that a substantial part of his academic library survives, gives us a unique vantage point from which to explore anew this period of intellectual history