Summary information

Study title

Small Firms, Management Strengths and External Expertise, 1996

Creator

Bryson, J. R., University of Birmingham, School of Geography

Study number / PID

3990 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-3990-1 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Not available

Abstract

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aims of this study were:
to identify the management competencies and weaknesses of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), focusing on the availability of internal expertise in relation to that available from external sources;
to assess the significance for SMEs of private and public sector business service expertise (Business Link) for processes of strategic change and innovation or adaptation to external competitive pressures;
to explore the processes by which the demand for external expertise is generated by SMEs, the types of work undertaken and the impact of such expertise on performance and competitiveness;
to explore the regional implications of these decisions by examining these processes in different operating environments;
to extend theoretical thinking about the position of SMEs in the wider process of production, and to develop the notion of the 'extended' firms in which the boundaries between externalised and internalised management expertise are increasingly blurred.
Main Topics:

The topics covered are: management strengths and weaknesses, education of owner/manager, use of external advisers (consultants), types of external advisers used, and most important factors to affect business over previous three years. Some of the data covers employment by firm concerned between 1992-1996.

Business/industrial management and organisation

Data collection period

06/06/1996 - 01/09/1996

Country

England

Time dimension

Cross-sectional (one-time) study

Analysis unit

Institutions/organisations

National

Firms

Universe

Service and industrial firms in England during 1996, with employment between 10 and 250 in the following sectors: manufacturing, business services and transport. See documentation for further details.

Sampling procedure

Simple random sample

Kind of data

Not available

Data collection mode

Postal survey

Grant number

R000236366

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2000

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to UK Data Service registered users subject to the End User Licence Agreement.

Commercial use of the data requires approval from the data owner or their nominee. The UK Data Service will contact you.

Daniels, P. and Bryson, J. (1998) 'Business Link, strong ties and the wall of silence:: small and medium-sized enterprises and external business-service expertise', Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 265-280
Bryson, J. and Daniels, P. (1997) Small and medium-sized firms and their use of external sources of advice and expertise in the United Kingdom:: some empirical findings [Research report], (Small Firms Business Services Project), Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Small Firms Business Services Project.
Bryson, J. and Churchward, S. (2000) Small and medium-sized firms, strong ties and the acquisition of managerial knowledge and expertise [Research report], (Small Firms Business Services Project), Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Small Firms Business Services Project.
Bryson, J. (1997) 'Business service firms, service space and the management of change', Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 93-112
Bryson, J. (1997) Business service firms, service space and the management of change [Research report], Cambridge: University of Cambridge, ESRC Centre of Business Research.
Bryson, J. (1997) Small and medium-sized enterprises, Business Link and the new knowledge workers [Research report], (Small Firms Business Services Project), Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Small Firms Business Services Project.
Bryson, J. and Daniels, P. (1998) Recipe knowledge and the four myths of knowledge-intensive producer service research:: the knowledge which producer service professionals bring to their clients [Research report], (Services, Spaces, Society), Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Service Sector Research Unit.
Bryson, J. (1997) 'Small and medium-sized enterprises, Business Link and the new knowledge workers', Policy Studies, 67-80
Daniels, P. and Bryson, J. (1997) Business Link, strong ties and the wall of silence [Research report], (Small Firms Business Services Project), Birmingham: University of Birmingham, Small Firms Business Services Project.