Self-employment and the small business
David J. Brooksbank 3.1 Introduction This chapter provides a general introduction to the core statistical data on the selfemployed in the UK. The chapter starts by providing an overview of …
Chapter summary
This chapter has sought to provide various international definitions of smaller enterprises. It has shown that these vary internationally. Despite this, and the methodological problems of using a mix of …
The ‘n’-shaped puzzle of the US
The previous section provided some accounts for why for many OECD countries have seen business ownership rates increase. Such interpretations can also be stretched to include ‘decreasers’ such as France …
Public policy
Another explanation for changes in business ownership rates is the role played by public policy since the 1980s. Greene (2002) has argued that faced with unprecedented levels of unemployment in …
Changes in the labour market
Alongside the development of particular niches to meet more sophisticated forms of demand, researchers have pointed to changes in the labour market to explain the growth of business ownership rates. …
Development of the service sector
The adoption of fragmentation strategies by larger enterprises is not supported by Hakim (1988a). She showed that comparatively few enterprises sought to exchange employees for the supposed flexibility of self-employed …
Large firm fragmentation
Another possible reason for the development in business ownership rates since the 1980s is that there has been a radical shift in the business practices of larger enterprises. Shutt and …
Innovation
In parallel with technological change arguments, some researchers have also argued that the re-emergence of smaller enterprises has much to do with the innovatory capacity of smaller enterprises. In part, …
Technological changes
The empirical evidence (Table 2.7) shows that business ownership rates generally began to increase in the 1980s. One reason for this is that technological change reduced the importance of economies …
Cost disadvantages
Looking first at why business ownership rates declined prior to the 1980s, one reason may have been that smaller enterprises were at a cost disadvantage. In an era of mass …
Explanations for the changes in business ownership
Given the heterogeneity of changes in business ownership rates over the last 30 or so years, it is unlikely that there is a unique explanation for such changes. The evidence …
Trends in SME statistics
The economic importance of SMEs in terms of employment and output has not always been evident. In this section, consideration is given to empirical evidence from the UK and internationally …
International comparisons
Table 2.4 shows an estimate of the number of enterprises in the EU (EU-15). Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the UK (in that order) clearly have the largest number of …
Numbers of firms
If there are difficulties about defining the small enterprise, there are also methodological issues in measuring the number of smaller enterprises. This section looks at these issues but also shows …
Definitions of smaller enterprises
This section begins by looking at two early attempts to provide a definition of smaller enterprises and then considers how authorities in the UK, the EU and elsewhere have defined …
Learning objectives
There are four learning objectives in this chapter: 1 To outline the various international definitions of smaller enterprises. 2 To describe the methodological issues faced in measuring smaller enterprises. 3 …
Defining and measuring the small business Francis Greene and Kevin Mole
This chapter begins by considering a sample of the definitions used by researchers and governments to describe smaller enterprises and shows that there is no single or uniform definition of …
Structure of this book
The book is divided into three main parts that essentially reflect the three areas that concern the small firm today. These are first, the environment surrounding entrepreneurship and small business …
Background
Attitudes towards entrepreneurship have changed considerably in the past 30 years. Gone are the days when the entrepreneur would be viewed as a ‘deviant’ individual on the margins of society. …
Enterprise and Small Business Principles, Practice and Policy
Sara Carter and Dylan Jones-Evans Zoltan Acs is University Professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, US. Giles Barrett is a Lecturer in Human Geography …
