Editorial

Citation

Matlay, H. (2009), "Editorial", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 16 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsbed.2009.27116aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Volume 16, Issue 1

Volume 16 of the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development promises to be an exciting collection of high quality international articles. We now receive the majority of contributions from outside the UK and this is reflective of the predominantly international nature of this journal. Our field of endeavour is not only expanding rapidly but also widening to the extent that articles on small business and enterprise development are now published in a staggering number of journals and in a variety of disciplines. Relevant articles appear in academic, practitioner and policy publications around the world. Entrepreneurship, in particular, has now become a much used and abused concept, in common parlance across most, if not all, walks of life. Similarly, and from somewhat shady beginnings, the “entrepreneur” has emerged as a “local hero”. Some entrepreneurs are even recognised and hailed as national and international “giants” and “pillars” of their community. In terms of local and regional development, entrepreneurship is now acknowledged as the single most important factor to contribute to socio-economic and political stability.

The prevailing economic conditions that currently impact upon both developed and developing nations also appear to favour entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurs. As during previous recessionary conditions, the media coverage focuses almost exclusively upon big firm closures and large-scale redundancies resulting from corporate downsizing and restructuring. In contrast, entrepreneurs and their small firms are portrayed as heroes battling against uneven odds, greedy finance managers and unfair credit conditions that originate elsewhere in the world. The harsh reality of survival during systemic recessionary conditions is much more complex than the simplistic or populist snapshots that emerge from television news or the pages of local newspapers. Entrepreneurship, as experienced by those individuals who are engaged in related activities, differs significantly from academic theory and official rhetoric. Both academics and policy makers are to a large extent remote from the everyday reality faced by entrepreneurs and small business owner/managers. In my opinion, however, researchers engaged in this fast growing and diverse field of research are not only involved in investigating entrepreneurial activity as it unfolds but also in creating and disseminating relevant knowledge at both micro- and macro-economic levels. In this context, we aim to ensure that our readership benefits from a current, diverse and high quality knowledge base, as disseminated in this and related entrepreneurship journals within the Emerald Publishing Group portfolio.

In the first article Fabi, Raymond and Lacoursière employ a “Gestalts” perspective to analyze the alignment between the human resource management (HRM) practices and the strategic capabilities of SMEs. The authors found that owner/managers tend to align their HRM practices with strategy within three configurations, namely local, international, and world-class SMEs. Interestingly, it emerges that these SMEs achieve comparable levels of performance regardless of which of these strategies they employ. In the second article Kearney, Hisrich and Roche undertake a comparative analysis of private and public sector entrepreneurship using a historical and evolutionary analytical model. They emphasize key similarities and differences between public and private sector entrepreneurship. The authors provide a framework for a systematic approach to researching public sector entrepreneurial processes. In the next contribution, Ronald Kalafsky examines the challenges and performance of Canadian manufacturers involved in the Chinese market. It emerges that for the manufacturers in the research sample face-to-face contact was important in determining export levels to the Chinese market. Importantly, overall export success was not restricted to larger manufacturers. Benzing and Chu explore the motives of 599 entrepreneurs in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria to start their small businesses. It appears that the strongest motivator for these entrepreneurs was the opportunity to increase their income. Three main motivational factors were also in evidence: a family factor, an external validation factor and a self-betterment factor. In the fifth article, Abel Duarte Alonso investigates the evolution and development of Alpaca ownership in New Zealand during recent years. This exploratory study confirms the importance of the lifestyle dimension among New Zealand alpaca owners as well as their intention to exploit commercial opportunities related to this type of business activity.

The sixth contribution focuses upon supplier knowledge accumulation in relation to their relationship with large multinational clients. In his finding, António Carrizo Moreira highlights the leading role of clients in the buyer-supplier relationship involving SMEs and also the knowledge-sharing relationship that facilitates successful cooperative networks. In the seventh article, Woznica and Healey examine the role that information systems integration can have in Irish SMEs that operate in the manufacturing sector. The authors found that disparate information systems can have a negative overall impact on operations, while integrating them in SME environments can benefit this type of firms. Jung Ha-Brookshire uses non-manufacturing, industry-specific empirical data to investigate the relationship between firm entrepreneurship and performance and its dependence upon firm size. The emergent results suggest that the firm size effect had an impact upon the relationship between firm entrepreneurship and SME longevity performance. The firm size effect on the relationship between firm entrepreneurship and SME creative contribution or profitability performance was found not to be statistically significant. In the ninth article, Besnik Krasniqi explores the influence of personal, household and business environment upon entrepreneurship in Kosova. It emerges that men, those who live in urban areas and belong to a larger family or household often exhibit a higher likelihood of engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Age has a weak positive effect upon entrepreneurship while marital status has no significant effect. Interestingly, it also emerges that education, received household remittances and additional wage earners in a household have negative impact upon entrepreneurial activities. In the final contribution to this issue, Isabelle Giroux outlines the results of an interpretive study of problem solving in 11 small Central Vancouver Island firms in British Columbia, Canada. Her results reveal the intuitive, improvised and non-linear nature of problem solving in her sample of small firms, which contrasts with the theoretical research frameworks that propose well-defined and delineated steps in small firm problem solving processes.

Many individuals have contributed, directly or indirectly, to this issue. I would like to extend my gratitude to authors, referees, advisers and to members of the production team at Emerald Publishing Group for their hard work and commitment. In particular, I would like to thank Richard Whitfield and Nicola Codner for their help and support with volume 15 as well as the first issue in volume 16.

Harry MatlayBirmingham City Business School, Birmingham, UK