Traditionally, environmental education has been aimed at the community or in primary schools and governmental pressure to reduce environmental damage has focussed on large businesses. More recently, the role and importance of small business and how to engage them in the environmental debate has come under scrutiny. Researchers have identified…

In this paper we consider the construction of narrative identity and particularly how managers of small businesses may construct new narrative identities within the activity of the action learning situation. We build on recent work to suggest that the "world" of managers can be explored through a consideration of Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory…

In today's knowledge-based society universities and firms must learn to engage more effectively. Universities focus on generating new knowledge, while firms are increasingly drawing on external collaborations to add value to their offerings. This book shows managers how to work with universities to boost their competitive position and revenue.…

This paper outlines an action research project developed to investigate the gap in teaching and learning placement materials available to students, academics and practitioners in the art, design and media sector, particularly with respect to micro-businesses. Previous research, funded by the UK's Higher Education Subject Centre for Art Design…

Recent calls to close the rigour-relevance gap in business school education have suggested incorporating principles and ideas from action learning in small business management education. In this paper we discuss how business simulation exercises can be used as a platform to trigger students' learning by providing them with a platform where they…

Small business employers in the UK are widely perceived as adopting a reactive, ad hoc approach to employee skill formation. Employer reliance on workplace learning is often treated, explicitly or implicitly, as evidence of such an approach. Small employers' approaches to skill creation are investigated using data from two employer samples. Three…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and enhance organisational capability through learning within a small firm context. This paper forms part of a KTP project. The paper considers here traditional quantitative approaches where data was gathered largely through questionnaires received from a single source within the firm approaches for…

Purpose: The paper aims to explore the experience of graduates in the workplace. The aim is to study how these experiences differ from the expectations of the graduates and the aspirations of their academics. Design/methodology/approach: The research involved two phases: first, a survey was conducted of marketing academics. This survey examined…

We study project-based, technology-enhanced learning environments in higher education, which should produce, by means of specific mechanisms, learning outcomes in terms of transferable knowledge and learning-, thinking-, collaboration- and regulation-skills. Our focus is on the role of objects from professional practice serving as boundary objects…

Today, more than 139,294 (43%) small businesses registered in the CCR and DSBS databases offer IT services to the federal government. Providing IT services to the federal government is an affordable and feasible low risk approach for emerging and seasoned small IT businesses in the federal arena. This dissertation captures how successful small…

In 2008, as business increasingly became the news, business publishing showed a growing awareness of the big picture, putting out fewer personality-driven titles. In this list, one will see that business histories embrace recent technological innovation as much as longevity. The best management/HR books look at the big picture through pushing…

Purpose: The implementation of e-learning can help SMEs to develop skills to cope with their operational environments, but current literature suggests they are not effectively engaged, partly due to a lack of understanding and mistrust of vendors. This paper considers the potential for a more effective transfer of marketing knowledge to firms…

Rapid developments in how international enterprises cooperate raise many lot of problems, when business partners apply attitudes, aspirations, and behaviour shaped in their own cultural environment. Business partners often do not take into account management traditions and value systems of countries in which they set up business. Business…

This paper is intended as a gender issue to the rural finance practitioners. It highlights the questions that need to be asked and addressed to the gender mainstream. It will also be useful to gender experts to wish to increase their understanding on specific gender issues in rural finance through mobile services. It focuses on rural microfinance…

This paper presents the recruiting trends for 2010-2011. This year's report is based on nearly 5,800 respondents, of which approximately 4,600 provided useable information, and 3,714 included complete hiring figures used for the projections. Despite the gloomy national labor market situation, the college segment of the market is poised to rebound…