Government Consultation with Small Business Owners: Empirically Evaluating Communications Strategies

Abstract

KEITH MACMILLAN IS PROFESSOR OF management studies and director of special projects at Henley, the Management College, Brunel University, London, England; James Curran is Midland Bank professor of small business studies and director of the small business research unit at Kingston Polytechnic, England; and Stephen Downing is a research associate at Henley, the Management College. This paper describes the results of a research project aimed at finding out why government information aimed at and policies for small firms do not get through fully and effectively to business owners and managers and assesses ways of improving the situation. They looked at the networks of contacts of owner-managers and found that the commonest were accountants, bankers, customers, suppliers, trade associations, chambers of commerce and local educational institutions. Small firms lobby groups hardly figured. Consultations through personal interview emerged as a preferred means of communication, especially where there was feedback. The researchers suggest that a way of overcoming the problem of lack of communication between government and small firms is to make use of 'communications brokers', who in practice were likely to be accountants and trade associations.