Graham Beaver

Innovation, entrepreneurship and competitive advantage in the entrepreneurial venture

This paper takes a critical examination of the process and management of innovation and the attainment of competitive advantage in the emerging enterprise. The ingredients for the successful management of innovation are explored using two case illustrations of companies that have attained profitable and sustainable business development against the odds in the pharmaceutical and fibre‐optics industries.

The strategy payoff for smaller enterprises

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine business strategy from the small firm and enterprise development perspective. It aims to advocate the value of a well‐considered strategy for the venture for superior business performance and consider the ways in which entrepreneurs can devise, control and communicate strategy.Design/methodology/approach – Strategic thinking and planning are strongly related to small business financial performance. This is confirmed by the research reported here, that showed quite conclusively that strategic thinking is an essential ingredient in enterprise survival, performance and growth. The original research on which this paper is based, had as its central objective to investigate the nature, style, value and development of strategic management in a sample of 87 small businesses in six industry sectors based in the UK Midlands.Findings – A central finding was that the principal value of strategic planning to those firms that practiced and valued it, was that they had a framework f...

Strategic change, special conference edition

papers from the Nottingham Business School HRM Department national conference. As with the ®rst, we have sought to include papers that ®t with the aims and readership of the Journal and that demonstrate the connection between HRM and successful strategic change. It is both gratifying and reassuring to note that the principal themes identi®ed in our editorial last year are, in the main, reinforced by the research reported in this years selection of papers. This adds further weight to our contention that appropriate, business-driven HRM policies are required to attain successful organizational development. Some of the most signi®cant themes that emerge from the articles included here are: