Small Business Management : Theory and Practice

This textbook familiarises students with the theory and practice of small business management and challenges assumptions that may be held about the way small business management can or should adopt the management practices of larger firms.

For students interested in establishing and managing their own small firm, this book helps them to focus their thinking on the realities of life as a small business owner-manager – both its challenges and its rewards.

For postgraduate students that are keen to ‘make a difference’, this text enables them to understand how they might consult to small firms and assist owner-managers to establish and grow their ventures.

In addition to students, this book is also useful to small business owner-managers as a general guide on how they might better manage their operations. Managers in large corporations and financial institutions who deal with small businesses as clients or suppliers, and professionals such as accountants, lawyers and consultants who provide advice and other services to small businesses will also find the book of interest.

Tim Mazzarol is a Winthrop Professor within the UWA Business School where he specialises in entrepreneurship, innovation, small business management, marketing and strategy. He is a Qualified Professional Market Researcher (QPMR) with the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS). In addition, Tim is an Affiliate Professor of the Burgundy School of Business, Group ESC Dijon, Bourgogne France.  He is also the Coordinator of the UWA Co-operative Enterprise Research Unit (CERU), and Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation (CEMI), and a Director of the Commercialisation Studies Centre (CSC) Ltd.

Over the course of his academic career he has published a wide range of books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers and industry reports. Tim's research interests focus on the globalisation of higher education, word of mouth marketing, business strategy, commercialisation and innovation management, small business, co-operative and mutual enterprises, business model design and marketing. In addition to his academic work Tim has been a shareholder and non-executive director of several small firms as well as a member of boards of non-profit organisations. He is actively involved in consulting to a range of organisations both large and small. In addition to his research and teaching within he is a sought-after speaker and industry trainer in the fields of strategic management, marketing and innovation.

Sophie Reboud is professor of Entrepreneurship, Strategy and Management of Innovation at the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France and an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. She has fifteen years of experience as a researcher and consultant in the field of management and strategy of small firms. Originally trained as an agronomist she served as a research engineer for École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris for five years, and completed her PhD there. Sophie's research interests are in the strategic management of innovation and creativity. This includes firms in the food sector and low tech industries with specific focus on intellectual property and strategy in small firms. She is the holder of the Vitagora-BSB Research Chair on New Business Model in the Food Industry.