CHANGES IN THE NATURE OF UK SMALL BUSINESS RESEARCH, 1980–1990

Abstract

Significant changes have taken place in the nature, organisation and management of research on the UK SME sector over the past decade. This is the first in a short series of papers documenting and analysing those changes. The data set addressed is the published proceedings of the ‘UKEMRA’ annual research conferences, which constitute the most comparable relevant source of research output between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. This paper focuses specifically on the changing nature of the production process in SME research. It demonstrates that there has been a strong trend towards institutionalisation, with a shift in the modal form of production from sole workers to research teams. Furthermore, these teams have increasingly worked across institutions and, in a significant proportion of cases, collaboration has extended beyond academics to potential users/funders of research output. Finally, there appears to be little continuity between those active at the beginning and end of the time period reviewed. The implications for the future organisation of SME research are briefly discussed.