A uniquely comprehensive and accessible guide to the key facts, ideas, theories and thinking about enterprise and entrepreneurship, this text considers their relationship to small businesses and discusses the methods that are taken to promote them.Outlining the importance of the small business sector and the activity of enterprise development, the authors discuss the meaning of enterprise, its perceived benefits and the cultural, economic and political influences which affect the behaviour of individuals and groups. They address the distinctive differences between small and large businesses and also consider business growth and corporate entrepreneurship. A special feature is the section they devote to the reasons, theories, methods and results of governmental intervention to promote the development of enterprise.Accessibly presented for students, policy-makers and practitioners, this edition has been thoroughly updated throughout and includes new or expanded material on:* Gender and ethnicity issues* Entrepreneurship and small business policy* Social enterprise and the social economy* Portfolio and part-time working* Intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship* International comparative performance* The E-business sector and the new economy