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Purpose - The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of size, strategic orientation and market orientation on innovation. Design/methodology/approach - A mail survey was conducted on a random sample of 60 South Yorkshire non-high-tech small, medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. A hypothesised model, stating company size, strategic and market orientation affect innovation was tested using multiple linear regression analysis. Findings - The results confirm customer orientation has a positive effect on innovation at product, process and organisational level. While it was found size and strategic orientation have an effect on process innovation. Size also has an impact on strategic orientation and strategic orientation on market orientation. Overall, medium-sized firms are prospectors and small firms, defenders. Prospectors are customer focused while defenders are competitors and environmental/technology-led. Process innovation is important to defenders. The findings reiterate that customers are the drivers for organisational innovation; while firms' strategic orientation determines their market orientation. Originality/value - This paper addresses a gap in the literature by that showing size, strategic orientation and market orientation are interrelated and, that customer orientation has a direct impact on innovation the most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges involved in the development of coordinated management consulting services for small and medium-sized international companies in the East of England. This paper synthesises the findings of recently published quantitative and qualitative research to identify the characteristics of small to medium-sized enterprises seeking to trade internationally. The provision of coordinated and funded consulting services for these companies will require skills and marketing tools development for advisers and consultants. The region's success in achieving its economic targets will be assessed in terms of its inherent features and emerging strategies to move from service based on the information paradigm to those based on the consultancy paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a research paper, which focuses on financial education in small ethnic minority businesses in Great Britain, based on portal survey of owner/managers in 64 ethnic minority small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and a control sample of 23 non-ethnic SMEs of United Kingdom. It evaluates the financial education needs of ethnic minority SMEs in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It makes an empirically rigorous contribution to a relatively under researched aspect of SME research. Results of research are discussed which show that owner/managers of micro-businesses have lower educational achievements as well as higher financial education needs than their counterparts in small and medium-sized firms.