This article analyses small firm responses to a major economic downturn, based on empirical investigation in the UK and New Zealand. Despite differences in the timing and depth of the downturn, there is remarkable similarity in the sectoral composition of small enterprises and methods of financing in reported recession-related effects and business performance during 2008-2009. While recognising that the study focused on surviving businesses, in neither country did the downturn have a consistently negative impact on small businesses and in both countries a significant minority of firms surveyed performed well. The study provides much needed evidence on small businesse responses to major economic crisis. Conceptually it demonstrates that although many small firms are vulnerable to changes in circumstances over which they have no control, they show underlying resilience and a high level of adaptability and flexibility. Longitudinal follow-up is necessary to show how the types of adaptive behaviour observed impact on business performance.

To date, little research has focused on female entrepreneurship in the context of transitioning countries. This paper compares from an institutional perspective two countries at different stages in the process of transformation. Lithuania followed a rapid transitional path leading to European Union membership, while Ukraine is on a much slower development path. Women entrepreneurs in Lithuania and Ukraine share many common features and problems; however, there are important differences in the experiences of women in these two countries. This indicates a need to recognize the diversity that exists among transition countries, reflecting different inheritances from the Soviet past as well as differences in the pace of change during the transition period.Female entrepreneurship, transition countries, Lithuania, Ukraine, institutional theory, SMEs, JEL Codes: M13, P2, P3,

Based on an empirical investigation of the development of a group of manufacturing SMEs comparing the characteristics and strategies of firms achieving high growth between 1979‐90 with the weaker performing companies. Shows that high growth can be achieved by firms with a variety of size, sector and age characteristics; such firms are distinguished more by the strategies and actions of managers than by their profile characteristics. The clearest differences between fast growth firms and other firms are with respect to their approach to product and market development. While high growth firms were above average investors they were not production‐led; instead they were characterized by an ability to make changes in production to complement an active market development strategy. To grow successfully over ten years, firms also needed to develop their internal organizational structure in ways that enabled the leader of the firm to delegate responsibility for operational tasks to become more focused on strategic level functions. Job generation was particularly concentrated in the high growth firms which also demonstrated an ability to increase labour productivity at the same time as they were increasing employment.

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This paper examines the institutional embeddedness of entrepreneurial behavior. The institutional context influences the nature, pace of development, and extent of entrepreneurship as well as the way entrepreneurs behave. This is particularly apparent in challenging environments such as emerging market and transition economies with an uncertain, ambiguous, and turbulent institutional framework. The paper develops suggestions as to how to extend the current institutional approach by emphasizing that institutions not only influence entrepreneurs but entrepreneurs may also influence institutional development by contributing to institutional change. This also includes acknowledging the heterogeneity of entrepreneurial responses to institutional conditions, depending on the situational configuration of institutional fit, enterprise characteristics, and entrepreneur's background, in which the role of trust as an influence on entrepreneurial behavior needs to be investigated. By focusing on these interrelationships, the paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the field of entrepreneurship, illustrating how entrepreneurial behavior is linked to its social context.