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Testing a framework of the organization of small firms - Fast-growth, high-tech SMEs

Gilman, Mark W., Edwards, Paul K. (2008) Testing a framework of the organization of small firms - Fast-growth, high-tech SMEs. International Small Business Journal, 26 (5). p. 531. ISSN 0266-2426. (doi:10.1177/0266242608094028) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:11383)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266242608094028

Abstract

Studies of small firms tend to assume either that models derived from large firms can be applied directly or that small firms are uniformly distinct from large ones. A recent framework, based mainly on low-wage family-owned firms, has identified an analytical space to identify different types of small firm. This article tests out that framework in a different context: four high-tech and non-family-owned firms. The framework identified market conditions and strategic choice as key measures, and was useful in capturing practice, though it also needed further refinement. Key substantive implications were: apparently similar firms in fact behaved differently, for reasons to do with their market situations and the choices they made; and the firms displayed tensions between 'modern' business strategies and 'traditional' and informal employment practices, tensions that the framework helps to capture.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0266242608094028
Uncontrolled keywords: employment relations; fast growth; high performance workplaces; high tech; institutional theory; resource-based view
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Kent Business School (do not use)
Depositing User: Mark Gilman
Date Deposited: 20 Mar 2009 13:58 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:50 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/11383 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Gilman, Mark W..

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