We develop a comprehensive performance determination framework for small businesses; provide a broad overview of recent firm-level research on firm performance; classify the performance determinants into three categories: (1) immediate factors, i.e. production, operation, marketing, RD (2) underlying factors, i.e. competition, formal networks, openness, entrepreneurship, market demand and supply; and (3) fundamental factors, most of which are also institutional factors, i.e. government regulation, uncertainty, asset specificity, frequency, and corporate governance. The classification is largely based on economic theories of firm development. The framework is empirical tested employing a dataset from ABS Business Longitudinal Survey 2007, which has 3432 observations. The richness of the dataset enables a comprehensive research to be undertaken. To eliminate selection bias of using a single performance variable, a firm performance index (statistic) is developed to quantify the firm performance, incorporating a few performance measures. Econometric techniques are used to empirically test the impact of various determinants on firm performance. In addition, the structural equation models are used as a supplement given the existing of latent variables. Based on the findings from quantitative analysis, policy recommendations are provided. The paper concluded a discussion of limitation of this research and recommendations for future work.