The broad focus of this paper is the divergence of implemented policy from intended policy in UK small business support. The Small Business Service (SBS) is the United Kingdom's most recent attempt to provide coherent support for small business. With its structure of local franchisees and multiagency partnerships, the SBS is part of the United Kingdom's Modernising Government agenda, which aims to provide ‘joined-up’ and responsive public services. However, it is not always easy for policymakers to execute new plans in the form in which they were intended. Street-level bureaucracies develop where those who implement complex policies amend them to make them easier to apply in practice. This paper investigates the UK Business Links' Personal Business Adviser (PBA) service. The paper draws on data from a focus group often PBAs and subsequent survey of the 175 PBAs in England and Wales conducted in summer 1998. The experience and tacit knowledge of PBAs provides the expertise for a bespoke support service to small businesses. Business advisers have both technical expertise and closeness to delivery that confers the power to amend small business policy. This tacit knowledge confers powers akin to a ‘street-level technocracy’. Thus, policies that do not carry PBA support, such as targeting, are unlikely to be implemented effectively. A new approach to small business support has been formed from the difficulty in controlling PBAs through performance indicators, which appear to have distorted the intended policy, and the Modernising Government agenda. The new SBS devolves the operation, but not all control, of business advice from the national SBS to local Business Links. PBAs will play a major part in the network mode of governance of the new SBS franchisees.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgarJ, 1994, “Walking on water—a workshop paper”, Durham University Business School, Durham
2.
AgarJMoranP, 1995, “Developing excellence in Business Link services: a continuing professional development process for personal business advisors”, paper presented at the 18th ISBA National Conference, Paisley, November; copy available from The Foundation for Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Durham University Business School, Durham
3.
AudretschD B, 1995Innovation and Industry Evolution (MIT Press, London)
4.
AgarJWitzelM, 1994In Search of Excellence (Durham University Business School, Durham)
5.
BateP, 2000, “Changing the culture of a hospital: From hierarchy to networked community”Public Administration78485–512
6.
BennettR J, 1995, “The re-framing of Small Business Services in Enterprise Agencies: The influence of TECs and LECS”International Small Business Journal13(4) 35–55
7.
BennettR JPayneD, 2000Local and Regional Economic Development: Renegotiating Power under Labour (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants)
8.
BennettR JRobsonP J A, 1999, “The use of external business advice by SMEs in Britain”Entrepreneurship and Regional Development11155–180
9.
BowenE R, 1982, “The Pressman–Wildavsky paradox: Four addenda on why models based on probability theory can predict implementation success and suggest useful tactical advice for implementors”Journal of Public Policy21–22
10.
BrysonJ RDanielsP W, 1998, “Business Link, strong ties, and the walls of silence: Small and medium-sized enterprises and external business-service expertise”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy16265–280
11.
CabinetOffice, 1999Modernising Government Cm 4310 (The Stationery Office, London)
12.
ChastonI, 1999, “Client and advisor management styles: Influence on the effective provision of advisory services to small and medium-sized enterprises”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy17257–270
13.
CiborraC U, 1996, “The platform organization: Recombining strategies, structures and surprises”Organization Science7103–118
14.
CressyR, 1996, “Are business startups debt-rationed?”Economic Journal1061253–1270
15.
CulterM, 1994, “Gearing up for Business Link”Local Economy8365–368
16.
CurranJBlackburnR A, 2000, “Panacea or white elephant? A critical examination of the proposed new Small Business Service and response to the DTI consultancy paper”Regional Studies34181–206
17.
DeakinsD, 1996Entrepreneurship and Small Firms (McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, Berks)
18.
DTI, Department of Trade and Industry, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET1996, “Personal Business Adviser Service: policy guidelines”, DTI Business Link Directorate, Sheffield, URN 98/695
19.
DTI, 1998a, “Personal Business Advisers Service: policy guidelines”, URN 98/695
20.
DTI, 1998b, “National standards of professional competence for Business Links: personal business advisers”, URN 98/818
21.
DTI, 1999a, “The Small Business Service: a public consultation”, URN 99/815
22.
DTI, 1999b, “The Small Business Service: summary of consultation replies and the government's response”, URN 99/1254
23.
EisenschitzAGoughJ, 1998, “Theorizing the state in local economic governance”Regional Studies32759–768
24.
FreelM S, 1998, “Policy, prediction and growth: Picking start-up winners?”Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development5(1) 19–32
25.
GibbA A, 1993, “Key factors in the design of policy support for the small and medium enterprise, SME, development process: An overview”Entrepreneurship and Regional Development51–24
26.
GibbA A, 1997, “Small firm training and competitiveness: Building upon the small business as a learning organisation”International Small Business Journal15(3) 13–29
27.
HakimC, 1989, “Identifying fast growth small firms”Employment Gazette January, pp 29–41
28.
HanfKHjernBPorterD O, 1978, “Local networks of manpower training in the Federal Republic of Germany and Sweden”, in Interorganizational Policy Studies Eds HanfKScharpfF (Sage, London) pp 303–341
29.
HillM, 1997The Policy Process in the Modern State3rd edition (Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Herts)
30.
HoggettP, 1996, “New modes of control in the public service”Public Administration749–32
31.
HutchinsonJFoleyPOztelH, 1996, “From clutter to collaboration: Business Links and the rationalisation of business support”Regional Studies30516–522
32.
HycnerR H, 1985, “Some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of interview data”Human Studies8279–303
33.
JacksonP MStainsbyL, 2000, “Managing public sector networked organizations”Public Money and Management20(1) 13–19
34.
JohnP, 1998Analysing Public Policy (Pinter, London)
35.
KellyG A, 1955The Psychology of Personal Constructs (Norton, New York)
36.
KingdonJ, 1984Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies (Little Brown, Boston, MA)
37.
LeanJDownSSadler-SmithE, 1999, “An examination of the developing role of personal business advisors within Business Link”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy17609–619
38.
LipskyM, 1971, “Street level bureaucracy and the analysis of urban reform”Urban Affairs Quarterly6391–409
39.
LipskyM, 1980Street Level Bureaucracy (Russell Sage, New York)
40.
LowndesVSkelcherC, 1998, “The dynamics of multi-organizational partnerships: An analysis of changing modes of governance”Public Administration76313–333
41.
MarinettoM, 1999Studies of the Policy Process: A Case Analysis (Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Herts)
MazmanianDSabatierP, 1989Implementation and Public Policy (Lanham, New York)
44.
MoleK, 2000a, “Gambling for growth or settling for survival: The dilemma of the business adviser”Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development7305–314
45.
MoleK, 2000b, “Using the incentives and relationships between various business advisers and their SME clients to explain the emphasis and impact of various sources of business advice”, paper presented at the 23rd ISBA National Small Firms Policy and Research Conference “Small Firms: Adding the Spark”, 15–17 November; copy available from the author
46.
MoleKHassallJ, 2000, “The assessment of SME performance and management: Business advisors' perspectives”International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation177–84
47.
PainterCClarenceE, 2000, “New Labour and intergovernmental management: Flexible networks or performance control”Public Management2477–498
PeckJ, 1995, “Moving and shaking: Business elites, state localism and urban privatism”Progressive Human Geography1916–46
50.
PowellW, 1991, “Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organisation”, in Markets Hierarchies and Networks: the Co-ordination of Social Life Eds ThompsonGFrancesJLevacicRMitchellJ (Sage, London) pp 265–276
51.
PressmanJWildavskyA, 1973Implementation (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
52.
PriestS J, 1999, “Business Link services to small and medium-sized enterprises: Targeting, innovation, and charging”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy17177–193
53.
RobsonP J ABennettR J, 2000, “The use and impact of business advice by SMEs in Britain: An empirical assessment using logit and ordered logit models”Applied Economics321675–1688
54.
RyanN, 1996, “Some advantages of an integrated approach to implementation analysis: A Study of Australian industry policy”Public Administration74737–753
55.
SBS, 2000, “The Technology Challenge for Small Businesses”, speech given by David Irwin Chief Executive of the Small Business Service at the Institute of Business Advisors Conference, October 2000, http://www.sbs.gov.uk/speeches
56.
SearsLAgarJ, 1996, “A survey of Business Link personal advisers: are they meeting expectations?”, Durham University Business School, Durham
57.
SmallboneD, 1997, “Selective targeting in SME policy: Criteria and implementation issues”, in Small Firms: Entrepreneurship in the Nineties Eds DeakinsDJenningsPMasonC (Paul Chapman, London) pp 127–140
58.
SmallboneDBaidockRBridgeM, 1998, “Targeted support for new and young businesses: The case of North Yorkshire TEC's ‘Backing Winners’ programme”Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development5(3) 199–207
59.
SmallboneDBaidockRBurgessS, 2000, “Targeted support for high growth start-ups: Some policy issues”, in Small Firms: Adding the Spark (Institute of Small Business Affairs, Leeds) pp 1133–1150
60.
StoreyD J, 1994Understanding the Small Firms Sector (Routledge, London)
61.
StoreyD JSykesN, 1996, “Uncertainty innovation and management”, in Small Business and Entrepreneurship Eds BurnsPDewhurstJ, 2nd edition (Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants) pp 73–93
62.
TurokIRacoM, 2000, “Developing expertise in small and medium-sized enterprises: An evaluation of consultancy support”Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy18409–427
63.
VyakarnamSGattE, 2000, “Small Business Service, reinventing the wheel—will it make a difference?”, in Small Firms: Adding the Spark (Institute of Small Business Affairs, Leeds) pp 1233–1253
