ABSTRACT
In this chapter I intend to engage in a richer form of interfirm analysis than is possible by conventional quantitative methods. My purpose is to demonstrate how cross-site, analytical case studies can illuminate small business practice in a comparative sense, even when one is dealing with small numbers of cases. Here I use the same seven enterprise profiles or cases1 that were analysed in a within-site (i.e. cross-instrument) fashion in the profiles of SBEs in chapter 6. They are: A (business services), B (plastic mouldings), C (window cleaning), D (PCB manufacture and design), E (microfilm services), F (phototypesetting)2, and G (cardboard packaging).
