Comparing the conditions for small business and entrepreneurship in Sweden and Australia: Lessons for the European Charter for Small Enterprises

A growing body of literature is concerned with explaining cross-national performance of small business and entrepreneurs in advanced economies. This literature has considered a range of policy and institutional variables which create an environment supportive of small firms and entrepreneurial activities including macroeconomic variables such as taxation, labour market regulation, social security and income policy; regulatory factors such as establishment legislation, bankruptcy policy, administrative burdens, compliance costs, deregulation and competition policy; and cultural factors such as social and cultural norms that support entrepreneurship. However, this literature has not always distinguished between the policy environment of small firms operating in different industry sectors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional and policy environment of small firms in knowledge intensive sectors. The characteristics of the business environment of particular relevance to knowledge intensive firms are somewhat different from the conditions for entrepreneurship and small business success more generally. This paper compares the science, technology and industry infrastructure of Australia, Denmark, Sweden with other OECD countries. The purpose of the paper is to identify cross-national differences in the business environment of small knowledge intensive firms. The paper seeks to explore whether particular institutional environments appear to be more supportive of small firms in knowledge intensive sectors.

An analysis of changing management roles in small Australian services exporters in response to the stages in industry development

Life cycle models have become important in explaining the changing size structure of firms based on the carrying capacity of regions or industries. In particular, the population ecology model predicts stages of growth, maturity and eventually decline in the number of firms in an industry. There has been criticism of such models because of their focus on external variables as pre-determinants of the potential for enterprise development. This paper attempts to reconcile the external focus of the population ecology model with relevant internal management factors in enterprise development. A survey was conducted of Australian services exporters, and the results not only confirm the existence of four separate life cycle stages in the population ecology model, but also identify the external and internal variables that are strategically relevant at each of the stages. The findings provide potentially useful information in a range of contexts including the design of small business assistance as well a providing “guide posts” to entrepreneurs engaged in enterprise development.

Strategy-making process and firm performance in small firms

This paper argues that individual small firms just like large firms, place differing emphasis on strategy-making and may employ different modes of strategy-making. It offers a typology of the different modes of strategy-making that seem most likely to exist in small firms, and hypothesises how this typology relates to performance. It then describes the results of an empirical study of the strategy-making processes of small firms. The structural equation analysis of the data from 477 small firms with less than 100 employees indicates among other results that the simplistic, adaptive, intrapreneurial and participative modes of strategy-making exist in these small firms. Of these modes, the simplistic mode exhibits the strongest relationship with firm performance.

Towards definition of the global biotechnology value chain using cases from Australian biotechnology SMEs

The generic pharmaceutical value chain model has been employed to describe both the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries till now. This research investigates the organisational value chain in Australian biotechnology companies in order to assess the appropriateness of the pharmaceutical value chain to small-and medium-sized biotechnology companies. The main theme of the research is: Can a generic model of the organisational value chain be defined for the biotechnology industry? Emanating from the literature, two research propositions were developed. RP1: there are eight major definable elements/activities of the organisational value chain for the biotechnology industry. RP2: Coverage of the elements in the biotechnology value chain ranges from focused to broad. A multiple case study methodology was used to explore these propositions. To develop a number of case studies, data was collected from senior managers of small and medium Australian biotechnology companies using an interview instrument, as well as from publicly available documentation and through observation. The results were analysed using cross-case comparisons. The results showed that an aggregation of the value chains of each organisation can be reduced to these eight definable elements that constitute the biotechnology value chain: basic research, applied research, development, verification and validation, prototype development, clinical trials, manufacturing and marketing. However, the findings also indicate that these major elements of the value chain need to be further reduced into sub-activities or sub-tasks to cater for the unique differences between biotechnology companies. Generally, the findings were consistent with the literature. However, a wider sampling, including international biotechnology organisations should be studied. The major contribution of this research is in the development of a value chain model, including general sub-tasks, for the Australian biotechnology industry.

Outcome measurement in Australian rehabilitation environments

Objective: To determine the frequency and pattern of methods of outcome assessment used in Australian physical rehabilitation environments. Design: Postal survey. Methods: A questionnaire on service type, staffing, numbers of adults treated and outcome measures used for 7 conditions related to injury and road trauma as well as stroke and neuromuscular disorders was sent to 973 services providing adult physical rehabilitation treatment. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 440 service providers for a response rate of 45%, similar to that reported in a recent European survey reported in this journal. A small number of measures were reported as in use by most respondents, while a large number of measures were used by a few respondents. Measures of physical changes were used more frequently than those of generic well-being or quality of life. Ease of use and reporting to other professionals were cited as the most important reasons in selection of outcome measures. Conclusion: This Australian-wide survey detected considerable heterogeneity in outcome measurement procedures used in rehabilitation environments. While the goal of measurement may vary between providers and differ between conditions, the results highlight opportunities for harmonization, benchmarking and measurement of health-related quality of life.