Public advisory services - theory and practice

Dan Hjalmarsson and Anders W. Johansson

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2003, vol. 15, issue 1, 83-98

Abstract: Public advisory service to SMEs is a multibillion pound activity throughout the industrialized world. Yet very little research has been done on the theoretical basis for this field. This paper proposes some elements in a theoretical understanding of the rationale behind public measures. The authors argue that public intervention should be considered at two levels, as a public market intervention and as a consultant-client relation at the micro level. At the market intervention level, public advisory service is seen in the perspective of economic theory, comparing neo-classical and neo-Austrian theory. Two different kinds of services are identified and discussed: operational and strategic. At a micro level, the concepts of client identity and clientifying power relations serve to understand the small business manager's way of responding to services. In combining both levels - the market perspective and the micro level - it is argued that the neo-classical theory is connected to operational/expert services and objectifying power technologies. The neo-Austrian theory corresponds with the empirical findings at the micro level showing strategic services embedded in a subjectifying power technology. With the neo-Austrian perspective the rather symmetrical relations between client and consultant at the micro level is comprehensible.

Date: 2003
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0898562021000011205 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:entreg:v:15:y:2003:i:1:p:83-98

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TEPN20

DOI: 10.1080/0898562021000011205

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development is currently edited by Professor Alistair Anderson

More articles in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().