SBRC seminar: Policy for small business and entrepreneurship – lessons from international comparisons

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Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Venue: Room 322, Kingston Business School building, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free
Speaker(s): Professor Robert J. Bennett, University of Cambridge

All countries have some form of policy to stimulate SMEs and entrepreneurship. Using comparisons for the USA, UK, S.E. Asia, developing and transition economies, the seminar reviews the balances between entrepreneurship and SME policy, and the fit with other policies towards the economy and large firms. For the specific case of a Small Business Administration (SBA) and a Small Business Act, the seminar compares the US, Japan, S. Korea and China with the proposals for a 'British SBA'. The seminar draws on the recently published book: Bennett, R. J. (2014) Entrepreneurship and small business policy: Evolution or revolution, Routledge, Masters in Entrepreneurship Series.

Background biography

Professor Robert Bennett is currently Director of Research, Emeritus Professor University of Cambridge, and Senior Associate at the Judge Business School. He has held positions at UCL and LSE, and has been a visiting professor at Berkeley and elsewhere. His research focuses on analytical economic geography, business management and public policy, with a particular focus on the agents of local economic development, business associations, and SME organization. He contributes to contemporary public debates on small business policy, and advises business support organisations in the public and private sectors. Many of these contributions are included in his overview of policies around the world: Entrepreneurship, Small Business and Public Policy: Evolution and Revolution (2014, Routledge). Since 2010 a further focus of his work has been on the history and evolution of small business, and business support organizations, with a major 2011 book on The history of Chambers of Commerce in Britain, Ireland and Revolutionary America, 1760-2011 (OUP), and a number of papers on the history of individual local business organisations. His current major research projects focus on business structures in Britain from c.1851 to the present.

For further information about this event:

Contact: Hang Do
Email: h.do@kingston.ac.uk