A new analytical approach to small firms' cases, which * Uses rich primary source data on modern small businesses * Combines business strategy and industrial organization * Presents detailed Profiles on diverse small businesses * Shows how successful small businesses achieve competitive advantage * Considers both extended rivalry and financial structure * Shows how to `ground' small business theory in reality Profiles in Small Businesses has a companion volume Small Business Enterprise by Gavin Reid (also published by Routledge, Hb: 0-415-05681-0: GBP45.00) which contains a full analysis (ranging from econometrics to the ethics of competition) of the larger sample of small businesses from which the Profiles are drawn.

This book presents case material on modern small business enterprises, in the form of profiles. These are constructed on a consistent basis for 17 small firms, and use a contemporary framework drawn from business strategy and industrial organization. Each profile is designed to show how an entrepreneur has tried to achieve a competitive advantage in the market-place by fighting against "extended rivalry", market competitors, buyers, suppliers, substitutes and potential entrants. As well as looking at comprehensive and defensive strategies, the book extends analysis to financial structure, including discussion of reasons for cash flow problems and problems associated with excessive "gearing". A comparative analysis of the profiles, grouped according to the degree of market concentration and associated market structure, enables new conclusions to be reached about resources of competitive advantage. The authors bring varied insight from managerial economics, industrial organization and small firms' consultancy. Their criterion was that the analysis should always be well-grounded in the reality of small business existence.