Around the world there is increasing interest in issues of small business and entrepreneurship. This book encapsulates the knowledge that can be gained from the most significant research contributions in this field. In addition it provides a historical-doctrinal review of the development of entrepreneurship and small business research, and presents some of the key pioneers that have shaped the research field.
Marketing Research for Small Business: An Efficient and Effective Functional Approach is as the title suggests, a work focused on providing small to medium sized firms with the tools and techniques needed to successfully undergo a marketing research campaign. Special consideration is made for firms with limited budgets and knowledge of appropriate research techniques. Two of the most common comments made regarding marketing research for small firms are: 1) It is too expensive and 2) it is too complicated. The authors work hard at setting straight these two chief concerns. Good marketing research can uncover substantial insight into your customer, competitor, market and potential new business opportunities. This book is primarily broken into three parts, with the first part focusing on the setup. Specifically, the content is directed at how research benefits the firm, how the research agenda is setup, and how firms can look at existing data first to answer some of their key questions. The second part looks at collecting information, either existing or new, making sure that everything you want to know is made possible. And lastly, we explain very simply how to analyze the information and turn it into usable knowledge. It is interesting sometimes when speaking with small business owners who are struggling to grow their business. They often do not really know their customer or business well for that matter. Normally, the typical entrepreneur has an idea, possibly affirms it with a few friends, and then runs with it. This is a disastrous formula with a high percentage chance of failure. It goes along with the old saying: It is much better to build on rock than sand. This simply means that preparation through knowledge gathering, preferably early in the process, is the key to success. As Benjamin Franklin once said, An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Sandra Fielden and Marilyn Davidson, already well known for their contributions to gender issues in management, have brought together an absorbing collection of articles that serve to enhance our understanding of a complex area within organisation studies. . . this particular Handbook is not a mere glossary. The editors provide a forum for scholarly works in a specialised area of small business and entrepreneurship research. And the International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship provides a rich resource collectively, the papers serve to summarise and re-examine much of the relevant research to date. . . an accessible book that follows a logical and coherent pattern. . . the range of this book is significant, and the accomplishment considerable. . . the International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship is a serious contribution to a niche area of entrepreneurship scholarship. The editors and authors have established a place for women in the literature, confirming that gender issues cannot be dismissed as a mere adjunct to the broader field of entrepreneurship study. This collection offers the reader intelligent engagement with the range of research and ways of knowing about women and entrepreneurship. Established scholars will find much of interest, and we would also confidently recommend the Handbook to interested newcomers. Robyn Walker and Kate Lewis, Women in Management Review Sandra L. Fielden and Marilyn J. Davidson have put a great deal of work into producing this compilation of scientific studies on women and small business entrepreneurship. In this book, the editors have managed to put together an excellent compilation of studies that look at topics that have aroused the highest interest in this field in recent years. . . It offers a good balance between theory and practice-oriented studies and presents an academic viewpoint that comes extremely close to the real, current situation of this phenomenon. This book therefore provides a useful tool both for the academic community in general and for students, particularly at a postgraduate or doctorate level, who wish to gain a state-of-the-art overview of this business phenomenon. It may also be put to good use by women in management and entrepreneurship as well as policymakers and small service providers, given its high empirical content, supported by a sound empirical framework, which deals with real-life issues for women who wish to start up and manage their own businesses. María Ángeles Escribá Moreno, Entrepreneurship Management . . . a truly international, unique and impressive contribution to our knowledge and understanding of issues for females starting, running and growing businesses. . . an important read for anyone with an interest in female entrepreneurship, including researchers, support agents and policymakers. Moreover, this book may be of interest to those concerned with the theoretical development of the study of entrepreneurship. Laura Galloway, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation . . . this book can be recommended as an insightful and interesting work on women s entrepreneurship from a broad perspective. Wing Lam, International Small Business Journal This truly international Handbook makes a significant contribution to the field of women s entrepreneurship by broadening the scope of the conversation, hearing voices that are often unheard, and providing a framework that organizes the current body of knowledge but also presents pathways for future research and practice. Patricia G. Greene, Babson College, US This Handbook is a breakthrough collection. Women worldwide are now starting small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures at a faster rate than men. Though small in size, these initiatives represent a significant factor in economic growth, highlighting their importance. This collection sheds light on the motivations, personality and behaviors of women entrepreneurs, the constrai
This volume introduces the latest popular methods for conducting business research. The goal of each chapter author--a leading authority in a particular subject area--is to provide an understanding of each method with a minimum of mathematical derivations. The chapters are organized within three general interrelated topics--Measurement, Decision Analysis, and Modeling. The chapters on measurement discuss generalizability theory, latent trait and latent class models, and multi-faceted Rasch modeling. The chapters on decision analysis feature applied location theory models, data envelopment analysis, and heuristic search procedures. The chapters on modeling examine exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, dynamic factor analysis, partial least squares and structural equation modeling, multilevel data analysis, modeling of longitudinal data by latent growth curve methods and structures, and configural models of longitudinal categorical data.
