CFP: Small firms and the challenge of equality, diversity and difference (EOI)

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-due.de]

Equal Opportunities International (EOI)- Special issue call for papers
Small firms and the challenge of equality, diversity and difference
Deadline: 1 June 2007

In developed and developing economies, small firms make up the bulk of
the business population. They play an important economic and social role
in general but small business development and growth can also go some
way to redressing social and economic exclusion - for potential owners
as well as workers. For example, women and ethnic minorities have used
self-employment and small business ownership as a vehicle to draw upon
their differences and diversity enabling them to engage in economic
life. For young people, small business is often their first experience
of employment and for many women, small business can provide a stepping
stone back into paid employment post child rearing. Amongst these
positives are a range of negatives. For example, the informality of
management practices, and overt and direct control exerted by the owner
can lead to direct and indirect discrimination emerging in a range of
forms. Resource poverty can put downward pressure on wages and
conditions of employment. Similarly the 'small is beautiful' myth can
encourage governments to exclude small firms from various pieces of
legislation (i.e. unfair dismissal, equal employment opportunity)
designed to protect workers rights. Workers often lack a voice and can
face a stark choice of putting up or getting out. Clearly this can
affect peoples' life chances. Access to finance, information and support
can also be problematic for some small firm owners depending upon their
gender, ethnicity and age for example. If the small business owner's way
of doing business is not given credibility, or information lacks
cultural sensitivity, then access to information can be impaired. This
can stunt the growth of small businesses and can negatively affect the
economic performance.

In this special issue we will focus on small firms and consider a range
of problems of and solutions to inequality from different perspectives.
The 'small firm' context is broad enough to include home-based
businesses, family businesses and self-employed individuals as well as a
range of other smaller firms. We invite papers that include an employee
perspective as well as those with an employer perspective. We encourage
papers to address questions which explore the challenge of equality,
diversity and difference for small business in their establishment,
management and effective operation in society. We welcome papers that
use interdisciplinary frameworks, cover single country and cross
national analysis, and represent different methodologies.

Particular areas of interest include but are not limited to:

* Female entrepreneurship
* Small firms in national diversity and equity programs
* Black and ethnic minority businesses
* Work and employment policies and practices
* Job quality in small firms
* Work-life balance in small firms
* Small business development in developing and developed countries
* Self employment and social inclusion
* Youth entrepreneurship
* Equal employment opportunity/diversity/discrimination in small firms

Papers for the special issue can be submitted directly to the journal.
The deadline for submitting papers directly to the journal is 1 June
2007. See below for details for electronic submission.
The Guest Editors

Professor John Burgess
Employment Studies Centre
Newcastle University, Australia

Professor Rowena Barrett
Department of HRM
De Montfort University, UK
Triple-Blind Review Process

Each manuscript will be blind reviewed by three reviewers as well as the
two editors. Reviewers will be subject experts with knowledge of small
business or employment or equality. It would be anticipated that the
reviewers would take no more than eight weeks and the total turnaround
period to complete the process of review to final submission and
acceptance would take six months.

Paper submissions

Please prepare your paper submissions in Microsoft Word format. All
submissions of full papers, conference reports, interviews and book
reviews should be made via the electronic submission system:
http://jade.emeraldinsight.com.