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A study was conducted to examine how institutional change in Ukraine triggered new opportunities for small companies in the emerging business services industry. It is argued that governments play an important role for entrepreneurship development in a transition context, particularly with respect to their role in creating the framework that enables or constrains entrepreneurship.

AbstractIn this study, the empirical evidence regarding small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) growth determinants allows us to conclude that: (1) stimulating factors are cash flow and gross domestic product; (2) restrictive factors are: debt, firm size, age of the firm and the interest rate; and (3) in the period after 2008, the financial crisis and implementation of austerity measures, in the Portuguese context, produced a negative effect on SME growth. In the period 2008–2012, that is, after the beginning of the financial crisis, cash flow had less importance, while debt was found to have a stronger negative effect on SME growth, compared with the pre-crisis period.

Proactiveness is a pervasive phenomenon in entrepreneurial organisations, however, the existing literatures mainly focus on entrepreneurial orientation, proactiveness is only regarded as one dimension of EO, and most studies on EO are at the level of firm, not the individual. Based on effectuation theory, this study utilized data from CPSED and examined the antecedents of nascent entrepreneurs' proactiveness. We find that entrepreneurial experience has a positive effect on nascent entrepreneurs’ proactiveness while management education and systematic search have negative effect. These findings add to the effectuation and entrepreneurial proactiveness literatures.

ABSTRACTThis article explores some current issues concerning entrepreneurship policy. It begins by examining the case for and against entrepreneurship policy followed by an analysis of the following issues: (1) the importance of context, which refers to the circumstances in which the policy was introduced and possibly maintained or modified; (2) the need for both researchers and practitioners to pay more explicit attention to the policy process which includes policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; (3) the call for evidence-based policy in which it is suggested that what constitutes evidence is not always agreed between researchers, practitioners and policy-makers; (4) the need for a strengthened commitment to policy evaluation and (5) public procurement as an under-utilized type of policy intervention, yet one which is potentially very powerful.

The targeting debate has been around for more than 20 years, and yet we are still discussing how best to identify high-growth SMEs. Following a discussion of targeting issues and a review of some of the key literature on SME growth, the paper focuses on an empirical analysis of the performance of a panel of SMEs in New Zealand over a three-year period. The results show that, even when growth occurs in SMEs, it is typically discontinuous. In addition, most of the easily verifiable profile characteristics that are often used for targeting, such as size, sector, age, whether or not the firm is exporting and/or innovating, did not consistently distinguish growth firms from others. Possible conclusions are that policy makers need more effective long-term assessment of government programmes and/or that the heterogeneity of those enterprises able to achieve growth points towards the principle of self-selection. However, the authors suggest a more radical response based on investing more in education and training and aiming to make more explicit the implications of actions and non-actions by entrepreneurs with regard to growth.

This paper examines the institutional embeddedness of entrepreneurial behavior. The institutional context influences the nature, pace of development, and extent of entrepreneurship as well as the way entrepreneurs behave. This is particularly apparent in challenging environments such as emerging market and transition economies with an uncertain, ambiguous, and turbulent institutional framework. The paper develops suggestions as to how to extend the current institutional approach by emphasizing that institutions not only influence entrepreneurs but entrepreneurs may also influence institutional development by contributing to institutional change. This also includes acknowledging the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial responses to institutional conditions, depending on the situational configuration of institutional fit, enterprise characteristics, and entrepreneur's background, in which the role of trust as an influence on entrepreneurial behavior needs to be investigated. By focusing on these interrelationships, the paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the field of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurial behavior is linked to its social context.

The paper sets out to review entrepreneurship in transition countries, assessing the extent to which theories and concepts of entrepreneurship developed in a market economy context can provide an appropriate interpretative framework. This is done in order to develop propositions for a model of entrepreneurship under transition conditions, which captures (1) the distinctive features of entrepreneurship, (2) the context for entrepreneurship in these countries and (3) the entrepreneurial process. The paper builds on previous papers by the authors, selectively using empirical evidence to support appropriate conceptualisation.

This paper is concerned with the use of external assistance by small and medium-sized enterprises and with the role of the public and private sectors in small business support. The paper focuses on 'mature' firms rather than new firms and the results from an empirical study of firms drawn from three different areas in the UK are used as a basis for assessing the adequacy of existing support for this type of firm. The survey covered the use of external assistance from a range of sources including banks, accountants and consultants as well as public sector agencies. The final part of the paper considers the priorities for improving the effectiveness of support for established SMEs with the aim of mobilizing more of the growth potential of the sector. These include the identification of particular target groups, recognition of the value of sector-based support and improvements in the delivery of consultancy.

DAVID SMALLBONE IS THE HEAD OF THE Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research and David North is Reader in Local Economy at Middlesex University, United Kingdom. This paper is concerned with established small and medium-sized enterprises. It considers the question of whether a firm's age should be a key criterion in any future targeting of business support. Using evidence from a recent study of the survival and growth of a panel of manufacturing SMEs in the UK in the 1980s, two main arguments for focusing support on younger firms are considered: first, that their prospects for employment generation are better than that of older firms, and second, that they may need particular help in order to evolve successfully into more mature businesses. The empirical evidence presented shows that while younger firms may have a higher propensity to generate jobs than older SMEs, this is to some extent offset by their lower survival chances. Since some mature firms also demonstrate a potential to generate jobs, the authors conclude that it would be a mistake to target policy support exclusively on younger firms. It is growth potential not age per sethat matters from the point of view of an SME's employment generating potential so that policy should seek to encourage and support growing firms at different stages of their development. However, within the context of such a policy, one particular target group for policy support are those young firms which are growing strongly but which have weaknesses which may threaten their longer-term development (such as a shortage of development finance). Nevertheless, while some young growing firms may need particular kinds of support this should be offered within the context of policies designed to encourage and support growing businesses at different stages of development.