Enterprise assistance:
responses from the
public and private
sectors
Claire Massey
The foundation for enterprise
development
The operating environment for today's firms
is increasingly characterised by the huge
advances in science and technology that are
taking place on an almost daily basis. These
advances have given firms the opportunity to
actively engage in ``development strategies'',
maximising the potential of the new
knowledge, ``benchmarking'' against other
firms, adopting ``best practices'' and calling
upon external advisors to help them acquire a
competitive advantage (for example see
OECD, 1997; Bhutta and Huq, 1999; Jarrar
and Zairi, 2000; LundstroÈm and Stevenson,
2001; Chaston et al., 2001). One of the
consequences of firms participating in
developmental activities such as these has
been the creation of a global consulting
industry. From generalist ``management
consultants'' to specialised consultants in
such areas as inventory management, human
resource management and strategic planning,
the owners and managers of the firms
concerned have access to a wide range of
choices to help them access the most recent
developments of science and technology.
At the same time industry bodies and
governments have become increasingly
focused on encouraging firms to access the
new knowledge, adopt the new technologies
and become more innovative (OECD, 1997).
Their assumption has been that adopting new
practices and the most recent technology is
universally desirable. This rationale has
provided the basis for the provision of a
number of publicly funded ``enterprise
assistance'' programmes. While the form of
these programmes has varied, according to
the conditions existing in the particular
country where they are based, almost all have
been built upon the rationale that while
assistance to individual firms provides the
enterprises with an identifiable benefit, the
economy as a whole also benefits (i.e.
enterprise assistance provides both a private
and a ``public good''). This is based on the
assumption that firms that use assistance
programmes will become more effective, thus
contributing to the economy as a whole. The
result has been that many programmes have
had an element of financial subsidy built into
their design.
Another common characteristic of these
public good programmes has been that their
The author
Claire Massey is Director of the New Zealand Centre for
SME Research at Massey University, Wellington,
New Zealand.
Keywords
Small- to medium-sized enterprises, Private sector,
Public sector, Technology transfer, Policy
Abstract
One of the consequences of the rising profile of the SME
sector is that many countries have some sort of
``enterprise assistance'' programme. In some countries
there are extensive government-funded programmes,
often delivered by a network of governmental agencies.
However, increasingly the distinction between public and
private sectors is irrelevant, with the emergence of a new
option for clients: agencies that are publicly funded but
which deliver their services using a model that has been
drawn from the private sector. This has implications for
the clients of such services, as well as the service
providers themselves. In a number of countries where the
``private sector'' model is being adopted for the delivery of
``public good'' services, the agencies involved in designing
the policies and delivering the programmes are facing
considerable challenges in moving from one model to the
other.
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128
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
Volume 10
.
Number 2
.
2003
.
pp. 128-135
# MCB UP Limited
.
ISSN 1462-6004
DOI 10.1108/14626000310473157