This volume examines the forces and factors that shape the global competitive environment for small firms, and identifies representative case examples of successful and unsuccessful responses to competition from around the world. Additionally this book addresses academic, policy, and business practice issues vis-a-vis small enterprise survival. The introduction to the volume lays out the principal, overarching argument that the challenge to, and responses by, small firms in the era of globalization can best be addressed and understood through taking a holistic approach - one in which political and economic, macro and micro, industry-level and firm-level interact symbiotically.