Methodology and ApproachA small-scale qualitative study was undertaken with interviews of five men and five women entrepreneurs of the second generation. The issues explored included their background, the factors that have influenced, facilitated or inhibited their decision to become self-employed, their experiences of entrepreneurship and the particular issues that confronted them.Female entrepreneurs in the sample were older and felt inhibited and more constrained than their male counterparts in their freedom to act. FindingsBoth males and females of second generation entered business through attraction for the opportunities rather than as their only option in an unknown environment.Notwithstanding expectations, later generations did not enter activities adding much greater value than those of the first generation, even though they were better integrated with their environment. Boundary stresses between first and second generation are likely to lead to further studies of succession planning and of the influence of culture and gender on attitudes to enterprise. Orginality and value of paper.Methodologically the study is novel in so far as the researcher (an Asian female from a "typical" family business background) has taken care to observe the cultural proprieties often noted within this particular group. Hence, the data are arguably more authentic than previous studies undertaken by "distant" researchers.

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This article explores an innovative model of management education, the Team Academy based in Finland, in which teams of learners create and operate real enterprises, supported by coaches. The contributions of the article are to provide insights into how the Team Academy works, and to review its implications for theories of management learning and educational design. Based on a case study of the Team Academy model we argue that management education programmes need to be construed as artificially-created learning environments, and specifically as `micro-cultures' -local contexts in which pedagogical and cultural practices coalesce. The concept of a micro-culture can bring together four main attributes of learning environments (social embeddedness, real-worldness, identity formation and normative).Construing learning environments in this way has likely important implications for the theory and practice of management learning and education, since a micro-culture is a complex, emergent phenomenon that is not necessarily controllable or transferable.

The growth of Asian enterprises has been a much commented on feature of the small business population. While academic research has sought to identify the key success factors for this entrepreneurial minority, little study has been undertaken of the role female Asian entrepreneurs and Asian women working in``family'' businesses play. This article features interview evidence gathered from both Asian women entrepreneurs in their own right and Asian women working in family enterprises, and seeks to provide a clearer picture of the roles, responsibilities and relationships of these two groups. In addition, the study is methodologically novel in so far as the researcher (an Asian female from a``typical'' family business background) has taken care to observe the cultural proprieties often noted within this particular group. Hence, the data are arguably more authentic than previous studies undertaken by``distant'' researchers.

The growth in management education generally, and entrepreneurship education specifically, has occurred at the same time as increasing importance is attached to management both as an activity for academic investigation and as a practical activity in both public and private sectors. This paper argues that the intellectual foundations of this growth are unsupported by a significant volume of evidence and so it is unlikely that the hope for economic outcomes will be achieved. In the specific case of entrepreneurship education, this paper recommends that the tension between prescription and recognition of the activity needs to be resolved by both academics and policy makers before the benefits of education in this area can be realised

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Against a background of low levels of business support take-up by SMEs, this article analyses minority ethnic businesses (MEBs) in three local authority areas in England to see whether they differ from the SME population generally and considers the extent to which differences are pronounced across the various ethnic minority communities.Fifty businesses across three local authorities were contacted and interviews took place between September 1998 and February 1999. The businesses included those from the Asian, AfricanCaribbean and Korean communities. Through a semi-structured interview, together with a number of open-ended questions, the respondents were able to elaborate on their usage of business support mechanisms.The study found different attitudes and levels of take-up across the different communities with African-Caribbean firms being most positive towards business support. Asian businesses tended to rely more on informal support networks and Korean companies were the least engaged with formal support structures and mechanisms.The findings suggest that policy makers need to appreciate the diversity of MEBs and policies aimed at helping such businesses should reflect that diversity. This research adds to the growing literature on the poor take-up of business support by MEBs. In so doing it contributes to a greater understanding of the needs of ethnic minority small businesses and sheds light on these issues in order to see how support agencies can aid their development.