INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

An Exploration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Family and Non-Family SMES in the UK

An Exploration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Family and Non-Family SMES in the UK

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

This paper will be focusing on the exploration of innovation and entrepreneurship within the family and non-family SMEs in the United Kingdom. It will also be analyzing the key issues that emerge in the HRM practices of the family and non family business because the findings are capable of demonstrating that the practices of the HRM in the family and non family business are different. Human resource management is the newer method of thinking regarding the people and the way they should be managed like employees within the work environment. Edward and Pinnington have a belief that in much the similar way because there a number of different roads towards success, human resource management cannot be known as the only theory but a growing set of competing theories. This is also a tradition of belief regarding managing individuals is usually followed back to the seminal works stated by American academics in the previous 1980's. During the middle 1980s in the United Kingdom, that was driven by the efforts defined previously in the United States, the word “HRM” became a trend and steadily replaced including different words like “industrial relations” and “personnel management”. Previous contributions towards the proposition of the rise of Human Resource Management were unease in defining it including comparing it with more conventional approaches of the United Kingdom.

While studying the family SMEs, it's very necessary to recognize what the SMEs are, since the family SMEs are known as the Sub-set of SMEs. Though there is no accurate definition for the SMEs whether internationally or nationally. They hold a dynamic and diverse group of enterprises. Provided by the diversity, a number of countries use wider definitions for capturing the primary characteristics of the SMEs, criterion utilized in this area includes the amount of industry type, turnover, invested capital, and employees. Although the major criteria that a number of countries use for the purpose of statistics is the number of individuals hired. The family SME can also be described like a firm that employs more than four and less than 200 employees including appropriate 3 hold criteria that is managers/owners take their enterprise like a family firm, fifty percent or more ownership is kept by the single family and at least 1 manager/director within the firm is from family. A number of researchers have been arguing that the perception of owner-manager regarding the firm like a family business is significant in defining the variable even though it holds an element of the subjectivity. In order to reduce the definitional subjectivity, the involvement of the family members within the share ownership and management are also incorporated in the description of this specific study.

The significant challenge for the family SMEs all through the world is sustaining their survival and growth within the competitive ...