ABSTRACT
The economic significance of the small business sector in generating income and sustaining employment has been recognised by successive UK governments since the 1960s. Concern over the volatility of the sector in terms of the number of failures and new businesses being established on a yearly basis, has resulted in a vast array of research into various aspects of small businesses. The Bolton Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms (Bolton 1971) was tasked with investigating, for the first time, every business aspect appertaining to the small firm both in the United Kingdom and abroad. One of the Bolton Committee’s conclusions, in 1971, was that in the United Kingdom ‘there was a generally low level of management in small firms’ and that training and “support services” could be improved to increase their chances of survival’ (Stanworth and Gray 1991: 178). This was the first official recognition of the significance of the quality of management in the potential survival and growth of the small business.
