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ROBERT WAPSHOTT's Outputs (15)

Small business stories in the formation of enterprise policy: a narrative policy analysis of the UK Bolton Committee (2024)
Journal Article
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2024). Small business stories in the formation of enterprise policy: a narrative policy analysis of the UK Bolton Committee. Small Business Economics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-024-00966-4

Enterprise policy, which seeks to stimulate start-ups and support small businesses, attracts significant investment from government and shapes the context for entrepreneurs. Researchers have begun to study the processes underlying the formulation of... Read More about Small business stories in the formation of enterprise policy: a narrative policy analysis of the UK Bolton Committee.

Institutional pluralism and the implementation of women’s enterprise policy (2024)
Journal Article
Mallett, O., Wapshott, R., & Wilson, N. (2024). Institutional pluralism and the implementation of women’s enterprise policy. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, 30(7), 1950-1968. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-04-2023-0431

Purpose: This research paper generates new insights into the challenges of implementation in women’s enterprise policy. It argues that organisations involved in policy implementation need to be understood as operating in a context of institutional pl... Read More about Institutional pluralism and the implementation of women’s enterprise policy.

Work engagement and the impact of a social identity crafting approach to leadership: a case from Africa’s air transport industry (2024)
Journal Article
Theoharakis, V., Wapshott, R., & Cham, L. (2024). Work engagement and the impact of a social identity crafting approach to leadership: a case from Africa’s air transport industry. Personnel Review, https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2023-0099

Purpose: Managers of public organizations in liberalized sectors face the dual imperative of retaining skilled employees who might be poached by commercial competitors and improving service performance levels without a free hand to invest resources.... Read More about Work engagement and the impact of a social identity crafting approach to leadership: a case from Africa’s air transport industry.

Regulation as a Management Challenge for Small Businesses (2024)
Book Chapter
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2024). Regulation as a Management Challenge for Small Businesses. In C. Nolan, & B. Harney (Eds.), Reframing HRM in SMEs: Challenges and Dynamics (23-49). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34279-0_2

In this chapter we seek to take up the challenge posed by the book’s editors, to reframe HRM in SMEs. We do this by considering employment regulation as a management challenge for small firms. We take this ‘management challenge’ approach to explore h... Read More about Regulation as a Management Challenge for Small Businesses.

The impactful potential of critical realist methodologies in entrepreneurship studies (2023)
Book Chapter
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2023). The impactful potential of critical realist methodologies in entrepreneurship studies. In D. Higgins, P. Jones, C. Brentnall, & P. McGowan (Eds.), Nurturing Modalities of Inquiry in Entrepreneurship Research: Seeing the world through the eyes of those who research (57-72). Emerald. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-724620230000017005

This chapter argues for the unrealised potential value of methodologies derived from a critical realist research philosophy in the field of entrepreneurship studies. Critical realism offers methodological alternatives that, through the generation of... Read More about The impactful potential of critical realist methodologies in entrepreneurship studies.

Self-employment (2023)
Book Chapter
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2023). Self-employment. In S. Johnstone, J. K. Rodriguez, & A. Wilkinson (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Human Resource Management (353-354). (Second Edition). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800378841.S.7

Persisting and Reoccurring Liability of Newness: Entrepreneurship and Change in Small Enterprises (2022)
Book Chapter
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2022). Persisting and Reoccurring Liability of Newness: Entrepreneurship and Change in Small Enterprises. In D. Hyams-Ssekasi, & F. Agboma (Eds.), Entrepreneurship and Change: Understanding Entrepreneurialism as a Driver of Transformation (3-21). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07139-3_1

This chapter focuses on the challenges of entrepreneurship and change facing small enterprises. Developing Stinchcombe’s liability of newness concept to recognise the persisting and reoccurring liability of newness for small enterprises, Wapshott and... Read More about Persisting and Reoccurring Liability of Newness: Entrepreneurship and Change in Small Enterprises.

Small Business, Big Government and the Origins of Enterprise Policy: The UK Bolton Committee (2021)
Book
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2021). Small Business, Big Government and the Origins of Enterprise Policy: The UK Bolton Committee. Routledge

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms (the Bolton Committee Report) was produced at a time of significant political change. The 1970s in the UK saw the beginning of the end for interventionism and ‘big government’ and the emergence of... Read More about Small Business, Big Government and the Origins of Enterprise Policy: The UK Bolton Committee.

How Do Regulations Affect SMEs? A Review of the Qualitative Evidence and a Research Agenda (2018)
Journal Article
Mallett, O., Wapshott, R., & Vorley, T. (2019). How Do Regulations Affect SMEs? A Review of the Qualitative Evidence and a Research Agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 21(3), 294-316. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12191

The effects of regulations on SMEs have garnered significant political attention internationally yet, in the academic literature, these effects remain contested. This article presents findings from a systematic literature review of qualitative eviden... Read More about How Do Regulations Affect SMEs? A Review of the Qualitative Evidence and a Research Agenda.

Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail? (2017)
Journal Article
Wapshott, R., & Mallett, O. (2018). Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(4), 750-772. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654417719288

Significant doubts persist over the effectiveness of government policy to increase the numbers or performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the UK economy. We analyse UK political manifestoes from 1964 to 2015 to examine the development o... Read More about Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?.

In Quest of Legitimacy: The Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Entrepreneurship Education Research (2016)
Journal Article
Wapshott, R., Fayolle, A., Verzat, C., Paris, S., & Business, N. (2016). In Quest of Legitimacy: The Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Entrepreneurship Education Research. International Small Business Journal, 34(7), 895-904. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242616649250

This special issue editorial discusses the current state of entrepreneurship education research and identifies the ways in which the three quite different papers comprising this Special Issue contribute to advancing the theoretical and methodological... Read More about In Quest of Legitimacy: The Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Entrepreneurship Education Research.

Making Sense of Self-Employment in Late Career: Understanding the Identity Work of Olderpreneurs (2015)
Journal Article
Mallett, O., & Wapshott, R. (2015). Making Sense of Self-Employment in Late Career: Understanding the Identity Work of Olderpreneurs. Work, Employment and Society, 29(2), 250-266. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017014546666

The enterprise culture is a pervasive socio-historical discourse. This article adopts a narrative identity work approach to explore how individuals may exert agency to make sense of and negotiate with the structuring features of such discourses. Olde... Read More about Making Sense of Self-Employment in Late Career: Understanding the Identity Work of Olderpreneurs.

You Try To Be A Fair Employer' Regulations and employment relationships in medium-sized firms (2014)
Journal Article
Atkinson, C., Mallett, O., & Wapshott, R. (2016). You Try To Be A Fair Employer' Regulations and employment relationships in medium-sized firms. International Small Business Journal, 34(1), 16-33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242614541992

'You try to be a fair employer': Regulation and employment relationships in medium-sized firms Abstract In this article, we explore the dynamic, indirect effects of employment regulation through a qualitative study of three medium-sized enterprises a... Read More about You Try To Be A Fair Employer' Regulations and employment relationships in medium-sized firms.

Informality and Employment Relationships in Small Firms: Humour, Ambiguity and Straight‐talking (2012)
Journal Article
Mallett, O., & Wapshott, R. (2014). Informality and Employment Relationships in Small Firms: Humour, Ambiguity and Straight‐talking. British Journal of Management, 25(1), 118-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00836.x

This paper presents in-depth qualitative research on three small professional service firms whose owner-managers sought to introduce greater degrees of formality in their firms' working practices and employment relationships. We focus on humour as an... Read More about Informality and Employment Relationships in Small Firms: Humour, Ambiguity and Straight‐talking.