R obinson Building, Sidgw ick A venue, Cambridge CB3 9DE, U K This paper reports new survey results on the extent, sourcing and im pact of external business adv ice to SM E s in Britain. The survey , cov ering 2547 respondents, is the largest and m ost de nitive assessm ent to date. I ts results demonstrate the v ery w id e extent of external adv ice: used by 95% of respondent SM Es, an increase from 85.8% in a sim ilar survey in 1991. The analysis of the survey assesses sources of adv ice in terms of the level of trust that exists betw een the supplier and the SM E client. The m arket appears to be strongly segm ented and dom inated by high trust specialist sources ( accountants, law y ers) , cu stom ers, suppliers and business friends. Business associations and governm ent-backed sources play an important but lesser role. The recent gov ernm ent initia tiv e of Business L ink has, how ev er, established an im portant m arket, used by 27% of respondents. I m pact assessments con rm the signi cance of hig h trust priv ate sector suppliers for the most crucial supplies of advice. V ariations in use occur by SM E typ e chie y by size but also by sector and grow th record. Generally lev els of use v ary by SM E typ e to a greater extent than levels of im pact .

I examine the evolution of British government support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), using results from four waves of survey evidence in 1991, 1997, 2002, and 2004, and comparison with other analyses. Whilst government support is often based on overcoming market failures in the availability or use of supports to SMEs, I argue that successful government intervention is difficult to make effective at realistic cost^benefit ratios. The analysis demonstrates little evidence of market failure in provision or take-up of business support. If a market gap existed in the past, it is no longer apparent. Any systemic market failures that remain can influence only the start-up, very early stage growth, and/or the very smallest single-person businesses. I also find that different modes of delivery by centralised, regionalised, or localised structures have very little influence on market penetration. Decentralisation can increase take-up marginally, but this has been achieved only with tenfold increases in costs and major increases in administrative complexity. There is some marginal but significant benefit of policy delivery being in the hands of market, or near-market, agencies. But for all delivery bodies there is massive variability in use, impact, and satisfaction levels achieved. Finally, a brief analysis of gender differences suggests some significant variations in use of advice from different sources, but that government sources have some of the most adverse use levels for femaleheaded business, and this particularly applies to Business Link. Over the period 1991^2004 there is little to indicate the overwhelming success of government SME support policies, particularly at the level of cost that they now involve.

BENNETT R. J. and ROBSON P. J. A. (2003) Changing use of external business advice and government supports by SMEs in the 1990s, Reg. Studies 37 , 795-811. This paper uses cross-sectional surveys of 1991 and 1997, a panel survey of firms surviving between 1991 and 1997 and comparison with a further cross-sectional survey in 1999, to compare the levels of use by SMEs of external business advice. The resource-based theory of the firm indicates that SMEs seek advice in order to increase their competitive capacity. Over time, increasing competition between SMEs is expected to lead to increasing use of advice. However, the paper demonstrates that only modest changes over time have occurred in aggregate use of external advice by SMEs, and these are not statistically significant. This suggests that earlier growth in external business advice services may now have plateaued. There are some significant changes of use by source (increasing for advertising, personnel and recruitment, new technology and computer services; and decreasing for taxation and financial management advice). The paper is one of the first to assess sector patterns. Publishing, manufacturing and other business activities are the largest users of advice. Sector differences are shown to be considerable and need to be taken account in future analyses. For government advice services, the shift from a centralized and fragmented structure (Small Firms Service and Enterprise Initiative) to a decentralized and coordinated structure (Training and Enterprise Councils and Business Link) had no impact on greater market penetration except for the greater participation by the larger SMEs in use of Investors in People. Increased use of government sources has occurred, however, through enterprise agencies and regional development bodies. Further comparison of developments up to 1999 suggests a possible decline in use of advice as a whole, and a significant decline in use of Business Link. This indicates that the new bodies of the Small Business Service and the Learning and Skills Council may struggle to meet their market penetration targets. BENNETT R. J. et ROBSON P. J. A. (2003) La variation de l'acces des PME aux cabinets conseil en gestion externes et au soutien de l'Etat dans les annees 1990, Reg. Studies 37 , 795-811. Cet article emploie des enquetes transversales menees en 1991 et en 1997, une enquete a echantillon constant aupres des entreprises qui ont survecu entre 1991 et 1997, et une comparaison avec une autre enquete transversale menee en 1999, afin de comparer l'acces des PME aux cabinets conseil en gestion externes. La theorie de l'entreprise fondee sur la notion de ressources laisse supposer que les PME cherchent des conseils afin d'augmenter leur capacite competitive. Sur le temps, on s'attend a ce que la concurrence croissante entre les PME entraine un acces plus important aux conseils. Cependant, cet article demontre que, pour ce qui est de l'acces gobal des PME aux conseils externes, il ne s'est produit que des changements limites qui ne s'averent pa...

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This article assesses the motives for membership of associations by established SMEs with one or more employee. The article concludes that membership motives span a complex ‘bundle’ of services, ranging from individual supports to collective lobbying. Bundling gives advantages of scale and scope to specialist providers, but also combines individual and collective benefits in order to mitigate the effects of free riding. Established SMEs also seem to look on associations, as a whole, as a bundle, belonging to an average of 1.85 associations per firm. There is some size segmentation of the association market, but, in general, size variation appears less important than the target markets which associations cover: the sector (trade and professional bodies), the locality (chambers of commerce), the specificness of the SME (such as FSB, FPB), or the role of the SME owner as director (such as IoD).