The small business assistance dilemma: is the disparity between the offerings of support agencies and the needs of business irreconcilable?

Breen, John P and Bergin-Seers, Suzanne (2002) The small business assistance dilemma: is the disparity between the offerings of support agencies and the needs of business irreconcilable? Small enterprises research : the journal of SEAANZ, 10 (1). pp. 49-58. ISSN 1321-5906

Abstract

There is a wide range of service providers who have varying motives for supplying assistance to small businesses in Australia. Despite the sizeable numbers of both suppliers and consumers of assistance it is believed that the marketplace for small business assistance operates inefficiently. This inefficiency is described as a disparity or misfit between the learning opportunities offered by service providers to small business and the learning needs of small business owner / operators. This paper provides an analysis of the learning activity that currently exists in the small enterprise sector. The role of communication in bringing supply and demand closer together is discussed and a proposition is developed to alleviate the learning disparity via a more proactive approach to communication by service providers. Two small enterprise projects are used to test the proposition. The findings provide guidance for the more effective functioning of organisations that serve and support small businesses.

Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/1288
Subjects Historical > RFCD Classification > 350000 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Accounting
Keywords small business, Australia, communication strategy
Citations in Scopus 6 - View on Scopus
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