Suchergebnisse

Traditionally, environmental education has been aimed at the community or in primary schools and governmental pressure to reduce environmental damage has focussed on large businesses. More recently, the role and importance of small business and how to engage them in the environmental debate has come under scrutiny. Researchers have identified education as one method of increasing the understanding of small business owner-managers' role and knowledge of practices that, when implemented, will reduce the negative impacts of their businesses. However, there is little attention given in the literature to the perspective of the small business owner-manager and environmental education. This research was conducted to fill this gap. Results confirm that there is limited environmental education for small businesses and that there is a disconnect in meeting the needs of such a disparate group. Six elements were identified by the small business owner-managers in the design of environmental education for them: use of plain language, provision of best practice examples, industry specific information, solutions for immediate improvement, practical content and use of trusted sources to deliver the program. As Tilley (1999, p.347) so aptly stated, although "the relationship between small business and the environment is complex … neglect the small firm at your peril".

Purpose
Becoming self-employed has appeal to both genders. For many women, balancing work and family is a key motivator. However, businesses owned and operated by women are often very small, with limited turnover. This potentially can have disastrous consequences when these women come to retire, unless a solid retirement savings strategy has been considered. The purpose of this paper is to outline many of the issues and implications of a lack of research in this area.


Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 201 small business owners via a convenience sample derived from various databases. The survey was completed on-line and analysed using SPSS.


Findings
Many self-employed women in Australia have neither enough savings for their retirement, or an actual retirement plan. This is exacerbated by the lack of regulation requiring mandatory contributions into a superannuation (personal pension) fund by small business owners, unlike pay as you go employees, whose employers must contribute a certain about on their behalf.


Social implications
Middle-to-older aged women are the biggest cohort of homeless people in Australia. This is likely to grow as self-employed Baby Boomers stop working and find they do not have sufficient personal financial resources to fund their retirement.


Originality/value
Whereas there is much written about gender and small business ownership, as well as retirement and savings planning, these two areas have not been researched before in Australia. Yet it is an issue for the majority of small business owners, particularly women.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or 'toolkit' of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. This paper categorises the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develops a selection or 'tool kit' of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Home-based businesses (HBBs) are the most dominant form of enterprise and the fastest growing business segment in most Western economies. HBBs have raised significant government interest based on their potential to deliver economic development and growth for the communities that they operate in. While international knowledge of the home-based sector is growing in the areas of HBB occurrence, operator characteristics and business activities, there is limited focus on HBBs operating within a regional context even though HBBs are thought to be more common outside urban areas. This paper presents results from a West Australian study that explored the profile of regionally located HBBs and examined the economic contributions that these businesses made to their geographic areas.

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore self‐employment through home‐based business ownership as a potential solution to the inter‐role conflict experienced by women attempting to balance dual work and family roles.Design/methodology/approachHome‐based businesses (n = 626) were surveyed in Western Australia as part of a larger national study. Data were collected on operator and business characteristics, and specific home‐based business issues (e.g. reasons for preferring a home‐base, management and planning, growth facilitators and barriers). Four‐way comparisons investigating the dynamics of home‐based business ownership between male and female operators and operators with and without dependants were made.FindingsThe attraction of home‐based business ownership is driven predominantly by the flexibility afforded to lifestyle and the ability to balance work and family. While these advantages were more salient for women than for men, gender per se was not a determining factor in why operators started a home‐based business. The more significant determining factor was the issue of dependants.Practical implicationsSelf‐employment, particularly through home‐based business ownership, may well solve some women's necessity to balance work and family. However, it may not be a viable solution for all women, particularly those seeking high financial and career rewards.Originality/valueThis paper contributes empirical findings regarding home‐based businesses which, as a distinct form of small business and self‐employment alternative, still remain very much under‐researched. The paper also addresses the issue of home‐based businesses being emancipatory vehicles for women juggling to manage work and family, and provides findings which question this increasingly populist notion.

Home-based businesses are a 'hidden engine' that are poorly understood and inadequately supported, claim Calvin Wang, Elizabeth A. Walker, Janice Redmond and John Breen. They undertook research to gain more insight into this sector. Continuous economic activity is vital to Australia and the main driver for the past 20 years has been small business, often referred to by politicians as the 'engine room' of the economy. However, little is known about those businesses that operate from a home-base, even though these represent the largest cohort both within the small business sector and the wider business community. This is potentially an economic, regulatory and even political problem especially if home-based businesses (HBBs) continue to remain largely 'hidden'. Individually, HBBs make important contributions to economic activity in terms of job creation, wealth generation, business investment, the provision of goods and services and the servicing of local, national and international markets. There are well over one million Australians operating in excess of 850,000 home-based businesses. They include, but are not limited to, accountants and architects, web developers, photographers, mobile mechanics, pet boarders, bed and breakfast operators, freight movers, electricians, plumbers and painters. Collectively, HBBs provide important employment opportunities, not just for operators in the form of self-employment, but also family members and staff. Localised businesses consolidate social connectivity for people, making it possible for them to shop and socialise close to where they live and work. As a result, money stays in local communities and this potentially fosters a healthy local economy through wealth and further job creation. These benefits make HBBs particularly important as key drivers of both economic and community sustainability in rural and regional areas. This paper shows that the sector has real potential for growth and greater attention needs to be paid to it in respect of policies, programs and strategies to facilitate the growth of the sector, particularly at a local government level. Given the ease of establishing a business in the home and the lesser risks involved (both business and personal), HBBs provide important opportunities for entrepreneurial Australians to 'give it a go' and in so doing, to further drive economic growth and development.

Landfill waste has a negative impact on the environment and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are believed to be significant contributors. There is little government or scholarly research, however, quantifying the collective volume of waste SMEs send to landfill. The limited studies instead measure total volumes (landfill and recycling combined) and/or do not distinguish between specific waste streams (e.g. wood) and subcategories (e.g. dust). This paper contributes to knowledge by reconceptualising SME waste into subcategories and by measuring landfill volumes. It presents findings from 404 Australian SMEs which found that, in descending order, cardboard, paper, plastic wrap, wood dust and particleboard were the subcategories these SMEs sent to landfill in the greatest volumes. It also argues that this reconceptualisation and associated data collection protocols have the potential to enable scholars and policymakers to determine the waste subcategories to which SMEs contribute most, formulate targeted interventions and research/evaluate environmental outcomes.

Small firms are not engaged in the environmental agenda and for real change to happen this is essential due to their significant contribution to global pollution. Although there are studies that compare small firm environmental response based on context variables such as industry or country, the influence of other more local context variables, such as geographic location, accesses to resources, and the influence of the local government authority have not been considered. This omission may be critical to achieving environmental engagement by small firms and a factor which has been overlooked in most of the literature. To address this gap, a one-on-one survey-based data collection was employed whereby the researchers went to 226 businesses in Location A and 240 businesses in Location B in two respective light industrial areas. Results show that small firm environmental management practices concerning waste, energy and water differed depending on the local context variables. The implication here is that if the local context in which these businesses operate influences the practices employed, developing strategies that acknowledge the influence and consequences of local context may be more effective than those currently available. New strategies may result in better engagement and responses by small firms in the environmental agenda and assist government and environmental organisations to achieve reduction in environmental harm and realise climate change targets.

Purpose– Academic approaches to the challenge of enhancing sustainability in research in university contexts illustrate that universities are affected by the very same values and socio-ecological issues they set out to address, making transformation difficult at every level. A theoretical and practical framework designed to facilitate cultural transformation is therefore necessary for conceptualising the problem and delineating possible strategies to enhance sustainability in research. Organisational change is also required, possibly on a university-by-university basis, where cross-institutional learning may be possible with personal behaviours that enhance collaboration across disciplinary and administrative divides.Design/methodology/approach– This paper contends that action research, in particular, community action research (CAR), offers the best approach to this task because it focusses on learning and change, and these are both essential to cultural transformation. A case study from a university in Western Australia is used to demonstrate this approach.Findings– The case study analysis shows some evidence for the presence of knowledge for organisational transformation, and that future monitoring cycles will be needed to detect the extent of the change.Originality/value– The paper introduces CAR as an approach to advance the change for sustainability in higher education and discusses some of the implications for universities who are looking to incorporate sustainability as a major part of their culture.