This paper is concerned with the role of networking in the development of ethnic minority enterprises, using empirical data drawn from a wider study of 82 ethnic minority businesses in North London. The paper uses a broadly based definition of networks that focuses on the exploitation of both formal and informal relationships for business development purposes, which includes social networks as well as voluntary and necessary business‐based linkages. More specifically, the paper considers the role of networking in raising capital, recruiting labour, identifying and finding customers, as well as accessing business support. The results show that personal and community‐based networks are used both to mobilise resources and to generate sales by business owners in all groups, although the nature and extent of the activity varies at different stages of business development. As other studies have shown, there is a very low level of take‐up of business advice and support from mainstream support agencies by these ethnic minority enterprises, not because of a lack of awareness but because of a range of negative attitudes towards them.

Problem statement:The central objective of this study is to help define a framework for researching the growth of small businesses. Approach: By way of a literature review, the study evaluates current research approaches to small business growth organized around the "key factors" framework proposed which include elements drawn from the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the firm and the business strategy. Results: In the absence of a unified theory of small business growth, models and approaches used to explain small business growth are fragmented and wide-ranging. A consideration of the additional impact on this framework of the external environmental dimension can inject a necessary dynamic element into the research process that is well-placed to capture the process of firm growth, as opposed to the snapshot of firm growth that tends to dominate the existing empirical work. Conclusion: The study concludes that longitudinal and case-based methodologies are needed to develop our existing understanding of small firm growth behavior.

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Up to 1 in 500 people with severe mental illness are difficult to engage.1 Consequences for patients include social exclusion, offending, homelessness, substance misuse, poor physical health, frequent unplanned psychiatric admission (often compulsory), overdose, risk to other people, poor social function, stigma and isolation. Such patients consume disproportionate National Health Service (NHS) and related resources and overall are treated ineffectively. The 2001 NHS Plan envisaged 220 assertive community treatment services, generally known as assertive outreach treatment (AOT) in the UK, treating 20 000 such patients by 2003; these targets were largely met. Characteristic features of AOT include long-term retention of patients, delivery of services outside standard settings, intensive interventions, inclusion of carers, multidisciplinary and multi-agency staffing, and assistance with non-clinical issues such as housing, employment and finances. There is a particular focus on engagement, team working and extended hours. The aim of AOT is to improve mental health and ameliorate risk to others by increasing the effectiveness of treatment and reducing social exclusion. Several influential studies, however, have cast doubt on the effectiveness of AOT compared with ordinary community mental health treatment. A national observation study attributed reductions in admissions and bed days to the inception of crisis and home treatment teams rather than AOT.2 A systematic review and meta-regression suggested that AOT reduced bed use only when it was high already. Subsequently, a randomised controlled trial of 250 patients over 3 years determined that AOT provided no greater clinical benefit than ordinary community treatment, at the same or greater cost than ordinary treatment. Aims and method To evaluate the suitability of 80 patients referred for assertive outreach treatment (AOT) and their treatment outcomes, by comparing clinical and social data during the treatment period with data before treatment began. To control for service development across the board, patients on ordinary community treatment were identified and matched to patients undergoing AOT for age, gender, clinical diagnosis and duration, and data acquired for the same time period as the patients on AOT. This was a retrospective mirror-image evaluation with contemporaneous controls.Results The patients referred for AOT were more socially disadvantaged and had used more clinical resources than the control patients. Overall, AOT reduced resource uptake markedly following referral, while resource uptake by control patients during the same period remained static or increased; AOT, however, did not lessen most aspects of social disadvantage. Clinical implicationsThe advantages of AOT include much reduced use of services but not the resolving of social exclusion. Some ordinary community provision may fail to afford the quality of AOT and thus suffer by comparison. The demise of AOT may be premature in such services.Declaration of interest None.

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