Suchergebnisse

A number of the major research and policy questions concerning the role of producer services in development are addressed. Specifically the authors explore the needs-demand gap; the internalisation — externalisation decision; gaps in regional producer services, and their implications for manufacturing competitiveness; the potential for the autonomous growth of producer service firms; and the roles of the public and private sectors in service provision.

In this paper we present a comparative analysis of the competitiveness and performance of matched pairs of small manufacturing companies in Scotland and the south of England. Several aspects of performance are investigated, and evaluations of the price and quality competitiveness of the product samples are made. One-third of Scottish products were judged to be of an unacceptable quality by the matched English companies. English companies are manufacturing to a higher quality but at a similar price to the Scottish ones. English firms displayed higher levels of skill and were more aware of the need to train. The empirical evidence provides confirmation of the conceptual framework, namely that production-related issues lie at the core of the problem of competitiveness for small companies. The findings suggest that government assistance should shift away from fixed assets to soft assets, and especially towards training and advisory systems.

This paper contains a review of alternative theories which have been developed in order to explain growth and change in the small manufacturing firm. Models of small-firm growth derived within the industrial economics literature are evaluated together with stage models of growth and stochastic models. Social and psychological perspectives on growth are reviewed and the spatial dimension is also considered. We argue that most previous theories of small-firm growth place too little emphasis upon the difficulties which small owner-managed firms have in meeting the competitive requirements of the marketplace.