Research Strategies for Small Business: A Case Study Approach

CLAUDIO A. ROMANO is with the Department of Accounting and Business Law at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is currently undertaking a large small business research project which is considering the role of formal planning and control systems in the growth of 50 small manufacturing firms. A mixed qualitative/quantitative methodological approach is used. In conducting small business research, researchers should be prepared to consider a much wider range of research processes. Current small business research favours the scientific mode of research, an approach which has disadvantaged researchers in obtaining intimate small business knowledge. The methodological structure stresses the need to adopt a mixed methodological approach in understanding small business. Although the suggestions prresented are not conclusive, they tend to imply an alternative approach which is lacking in the literature. A case study approach is advanced as an alternative.