Sara Nadin

Exploring human resource management practices in small and medium sized enterprises

This paper reports on empirical work recently conducted about the use and effectiveness of HRM practices in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A telephone survey was conducted with 100 senior managers of SMEs to ascertain their use of a range of human resource practices and the extent to which they had found those practices successful in aiding the achievement of company objectives. Additionally in‐depth interviews were conducted with senior managers from a further 22 SMEs. Findings suggest that there is considerable diversity amongst SMEs in relation to their use of HR practices. A model is provided that identifies the key criteria that underlie the adoption of HRM practices, and the implications of the model are discussed.

The Uses and Effectiveness of Benchmarking in SMEs

The aim of this paper is to explore current uses of benchmarking in small‐ and medium sized enterprises SMEs as well as assessing the demand for this practice. A multi‐method approach was adopted involving a telephone survey of 100 companies supplemented with in‐depth interviews with a further 22 companies generating qualitative data which explored the issues in greater detail. The most popular benchmarking indices used were financial performance, customer satisfaction and quality of products / services. Benchmarking of human resource type measures was inconsistent and piecemeal. Where benchmarking was used it was found to be very effective across all of the measures used, though low levels of interest in using benchmarking were shown by companies not already using it. Thus, whilst companies appear hesitant about using benchmarking data, where they do so, they are pleased with the results. Reasons behind this reluctance and the patterns of usage generally are explored.

Entrepreneurship and the Informal Economy: An Overview

In recent decades, the field of entrepreneurship studies has become increasingly interested in the relationship between entrepreneurship and the informal economy. This paper reviews this burgeoning sub-field of entrepreneurship studies that recognizes how entrepreneurs do not always conduct their business affairs wholly by the rulebook. Evaluating this rapidly growing body of literature, it reviews the findings regarding the preponderance of entrepreneurs to engage in the informal economy, the nature of such informal entrepreneurship, the characteristics of informal entrepreneurs and the motives underpinning participation in such endeavor, along with the competing theories that have sought to explain engagement in this type of entrepreneurship. The tentative finding is that there are marked socio-spatial variations in the prevalence and nature of informal entrepreneurship, the characteristics of informal entrepreneurs and their rationales. The implication is not only that different theorizations of informal entrepreneurship apply more in some populations than others, but also that some populations usually seen as lacking in entrepreneurial spirit are perhaps more enterprising and entrepreneurial than currently recognized. Consequently, legitimizing this hidden enterprise culture could be an important means of promoting enterprise and economic development in such populations. The paper concludes by highlighting future avenues for research on this subject.

Tackling the Hidden Enterprise Culture: Government Policies to Support the Formalization of Informal Entrepreneurship

It is now recognized that many entrepreneurs operate wholly or partially in the informal economy. Harnessing this hidden enterprise culture by facilitating its formalization is therefore a potentially effective and innovative means of promoting economic development and growth. To start evaluating how this might be achieved, the aim of this paper is to understand entrepreneurs’ motives for operating in the informal economy so as to identify the public policy interventions required to facilitate the formalization of this hidden enterprise culture. Reporting a survey of 51 nascent entrepreneurs in North Nottinghamshire, of which 43 were operating in the informal economy, the finding is that entrepreneurs’ rationales for working informally differ according to both whether they operate wholly in the informal economy or have registered enterprises but trade partially off-the-books, as well as whether they view themselves as on a journey towards formalization or not. Different policy measures are therefore required to tackle each type of informal entrepreneurship. The outcome is a tentative call for a more nuanced and bespoke policy approach for tackling the different kinds of informal entrepreneurship that comprise the hidden enterprise culture.

Evaluating competing theories of informal entrepreneurship: some lessons from Ukraine

Purpose – This paper evaluates critically the competing theories of informal entrepreneurship that variously represent such endeavour as a residue from a previous mode of accumulation (modernisation theory), a direct by-product of contemporary capitalism and survival strategy for those marginalised from the circuits of the modern economy (structuralism), an endeavour voluntarily pursued due to over-regulation in the formal economy (neo-liberalism) or a practice chosen for social, redistributive, political or identity reasons (post-structuralism). Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate these competing theories, a 2005/6 survey involving face-to-face interviews with 298 informal entrepreneurs in Ukraine is analysed. Findings – Contrary to previous studies which assert that one single theorisation is universally applicable, this study finds that each theory is valid for different types of informal entrepreneurship, and therefore proposes a typology of informal entrepreneurship that joins together the contrasting theorisations in order to achieve a more accurate and finer-grained explanation of the complex and heterogeneous configuration of informal entrepreneurship in contemporary Ukraine.Research implications – This paper reveals the need to move beyond treating the competing explanations as mutually exclusive by outlining a typology that combines the contrasting theorisations in order to more fully understand the heterogeneity of informal entrepreneurship. Practical/social implications – By unravelling the heterogeneity of informal entrepreneurship, a more nuanced policy approach is shown to be required which does not seek to simply either eradicate such endeavour, pursue a laissez-faire approach or harness such entrepreneurship but instead pursues all these approaches to varying extents in relation to different kinds of informal entrepreneur.Originality/value – One of the first papers to identify and empirically evaluate the competing theories of informal entrepreneurship.

Evaluating the Impact of the Informal Economy on Businesses in South East Europe: Some Lessons from the 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey

Evaluating the Impact of the Informal Economy on Businesses in South East Europe: Some Lessons from the 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey The aim of this paper is to evaluate the variable impacts of the informal economy on businesses and employment relations in South East Europe. Evidence is reported from the 2009 World Bank Enterprise Survey which interviewed 4,720 businesses located in South East Europe. The finding is not only that a large informal sector reduces wage levels but also that there are significant spatial variations in the adverse impacts of the informal economy across this European region. Small, rural and domestic businesses producing for the home market and the transport, construction, garment and wholesale sectors are most likely to be adversely affected by the informal economy. The paper concludes by calling for similar research in other global regions and for a more targeted approach towards tackling the informal economy.

Tackling Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: Evaluating the Policy Options

Purpose – Although there is emerging an understanding that many entrepreneurs conduct some or all of their transactions off‐the‐books, there has so far been little attempt to consider what can and should be done about entrepreneurship in the informal economy. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap.Design/methodology/approach – Following a review of what is known about the prevalence and nature of informal entrepreneurship, this paper evaluates what can and should be done about informal entrepreneurs by analyzing the various policy options and their implications.Findings – Evaluating the possible policy approaches of doing nothing, eradication, de‐regulation and facilitating formalisation, the finding is that doing nothing leaves intact the existing negative impacts on formal and informal businesses, customers and governments, whilst eradicating informal entrepreneurship results in governments stamping out precisely the entrepreneurship and enterprise culture that they wish to nurture, and de‐regu...

Reproducing gender inequalities? A critique of realist assumptions underpinning personnel selection research and practice

Occupational discrimination and segregation along gendered lines continue to be seen as problematic throughout the UK and the USA. Women continue to be attracted to occupations that are considered to be womens work, such as clerical, secretarial and personal service work, and inequalities persist even when women enter traditional male domains such as management. Work psychologys chief, though indirect, contribution to this field has been through personnel selection research, where methods aimed at helping organizations to make more fair and unbiased selection decisions have been carefully examined. Our aim in this paper is to argue that, on their own, such methods can make very little difference to the position of women (and other minorities) in work organizations. The processes that are fundamental to organizational attraction and adjustment cannot, we contend, be understood adequately through reductionist approaches that treat organizational and individual characteristics as context independent realities. Drawing on critical management research and using the specific example of police work, we argue that work roles and work identities can be more fruitfully understood as social constructions that, when deconstructed, illuminate more powerfully how processes that lead to the relative subordination of women (and other groups) are both reproduced and challenged.

Innovation and SMEs The Case of South Yorkshire, UK

In this paper the authors describe the ongoing development of a specialized advisory service aimed at promoting innovation in local manufacturing SMEs. The first stage studies the levels of process and product innovation, and level of innovation need, through a telephone survey of 156 small and medium-sized manufacturing companies and a number of follow-up interviews. The following stage involves the development of audit tools designed to identify gaps in innovation capability, and a change methodology to help companies become more innovative. These tools will be piloted with a number of local SMEs and then disseminated more widely to companies and business support agencies. The paper focuses on issues related to innovation in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies and explores these in relation to the initial findings of the survey.

Work Beyond Employment: Representations of Informal Economic Activities

For much of the previous century, the informal sector was largely represented as a residue of a previous mode of production confined to marginal populations and gradually disappearing due to the inevitable and natural shift towards the formal economy across the globe. Over the past quarter of a century, however, articles published in Work, Employment and Society have been at the forefront of re-reading the informal sector. This article reveals how this body of literature has shown informal economic activities to be a persistent and ubiquitous feature of the economic landscape, mapped the complex and variable dynamics of formal and informal work in different populations, transcended simplistic universal structure/agency explanations for the persistence of informal work by developing context-bound understandings, and challenged the formal/informal dichotomy which represents the formal and informal sectors as separate hostile worlds. The article concludes by highlighting some possible future directions for research on this topic.