Of 252 rural Alberta attendees of home-based business workshops, 60 were in business. Of these, 65 percent produced sewing, textile, or food-related products; 73 percent contributed less than 5 percent of family income; 72 percent worked at home because a hobby became profitable; and the majority were married women over 40. (SK)

A study investigated 43 small businesses in terms of adaptability, planning, information/knowledge, human resource development, and growth. Results showed a paternalistic culture, informal learning, and emphasis on individual character and organizational growth. Findings suggest a need for nonmainstream approaches to human resource development in…

Surveys (n=6,000), interviews (n=600), and case studies (n=60) of organizational learning in British small businesses indicated that nearly all claimed to be learning organizations, but learning was largely incidental and sporadic and only a fraction of it was communicated to others. Few were using knowledge management strategically. (SK)

Discusses how a small to mid-sized organization can create a leadership development program using the same approach that is used in large companies like General Electric. Identifies the factors that can transfer successfully to smaller organizations. (JOW)

Responses to a survey of 20 business support organizations in Sweden show that they are aware of the problems of new businesses, However, business owners participating in training they offer perceive their teaching to be too theoretical, their programs too inflexible, and their teaching expertise lacking. (SK)

Discusses the findings of a study that investigated how the learning of innovative practices might best proceed in small businesses. The recent implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Australia presented an opportunity for understanding how small business operatives learned to implement a new practice. The procedures comprised…

One of the greatest challenges facing traditional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout the world is that posed by the Internet. While the Internet offers great potential to SMEs, from improving and cheapening production processes through to reaching global customers, it also poses great problems. SMEs' resources, human and…

In an attempt to diversify the economy and stimulate private enterprise development, government agencies and private institutions in many countries have emphasized the importance of setting up and developing small and medium-size enterprises and promoting entrepreneurship. An important question confronting policy makers, however, is how they can…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore, through a survey and two short case studies, the issues smaller firms face with the adoption of new technologies. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of the pressures to adopt new technologies and the existence of specialist technology skills was conducted of small ICT oriented firms in the West…

In 2004, the New York City Department of Small Business Services and representatives from the New York City Workforce Development Funders Group joined together to form the Workforce Innovation Fund (WIF) with the goal of sharing expertise and learning and providing an avenue to merge resources to support common goals. WIF's first project was the…

Eleven studies were identified as meeting the criteria for relevance and quality of findings to provide sound evidence to answer a review question (see second chapter, "The included studies", of the main report). An additional nine studies were considered to provide supporting evidence for implementation of intervention strategies. [This…

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College's Small Business Center could aptly be called "the little economic engine that could." It has an innovative approach to rejuvenating the western North Carolina economy that has drawn the attention of everyone from North Carolina's lieutenant governor to the Maltese ambassador to the United…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to deal with the design of small-business training programs and focuses on women business owners, their real needs and the supply of adequate training. How and to what extent are client selection and support needs influenced by the gender system? Design/methodology/approach: An in-depth study of an ambitious…

Purpose: The primary purpose of the study was to determine the type of relationships that existed among organizational learning dimensions studied. In addition, the study sought to establish whether the correlations were statistically significant at 0.05 and 0.01 levels. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a correlational quantitative…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the extent and nature of Vocational Education and Training (VET) vis-a-vis other forms of training in three size categories of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from two industry sectors. Design/methodology/approach: The longitudinal panel data employed in this paper are drawn…