Pro-growth small businesses: learning architecture

Sue Bergin-Seer, Alison J. Morrison

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    25 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Internationally, a certain market failure has become apparent in terms of the effective engagement of small business owner-managers in business support programs, and in the wider concept of life long learning. There exists a cultural gap between support agencies and the small business sector's perceptions of the utility of formal support and learning interventions to the business performance of their business. Therefore, this paper extends knowledge and understanding within this context relative to what constitutes small business owner-managers' learning disposition, means, obstacles and organisation to be confronted and what form of new 'architecture' needs to be designed to support learning. A theoretical framework supports the analysis of findings from a research project based in Melbourne, Australia, which serves to illuminate pertinent issues towards informing more sensitised support interventions. Specifically, the attribute of a learning culture was identified as a factor contributing to growth in small businesses, and may represent a distinguishing characteristic between effective and non-effective economic performers.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)388-400
    Number of pages12
    JournalJournal of Management Development
    Volume21
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2002

    Keywords

    • business development
    • corporate culture
    • learning
    • small firms

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