Knowledge, learning and small firm growth: A systematic review of the evidence

A systematic review of empirical research on knowledge and growth in small firms is reported. The findings cover how human and social capital, organizational systems, and knowledge networks combine to facilitate or restrict growth. Findings highlight the situated, complex and idiosyncratic nature of small firm growth and the tensions between this experience and a prevailing view of knowledge in the existing research as a codifiable and transferable asset. A need for supplementary small firm heuristics (to age, size and sector) and epistemologies (to knowledge as an asset) and research approaches are identified to better investigate this diversity.     

In Practice: Communication,communication, communication: The three rules of large‐group planning

One college's commitment to large‐group planning resulted in a partnership between academic affairs and student affairs that has created positive student learning outcomes beyond the expected.     

Uncertainty,environmental policy and social learning

This note puts the research project which led to this Special Issue in the context of developments in and around environmental policy over the past two decades, from the perspective of someone closely involved. It links political and institutional problems over sustainable development to the changing role and authority of science in contemporary society, and to the new kind of emphasis on social learning to be found in the papers that follow.     

Effects of reflection prompts on learning outcomes and learning behaviour in statistics education

Starting from difficulties that students display when they deal with correlation analysis, an e-learning environment (‘Koralle’) was developed. The design was inspired by principles of situated and example-based learning. In order to facilitate reflective processes and thus enhance learning outcomes, reflection prompts were integrated into the learning environment. A total of 57 university students were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: 28 students were prompted to give reasons for their decisions while working within the learning environment (EG 1); and 29 students dealt with Koralle without being prompted (EG 2). The control group consisted of 67 students who had already attended regular statistics lectures but had no access to the e-learning environment. EG 1 scored significantly higher in the posttest than EG 2, and the effect was practically relevant and sustainable. Reflection prompts did not influence time on task, task choices and motivational outcomes. Both experimental groups clearly outperformed the control group.     

Critical thresholds for co-citation clusters and emergence of the giant component

The behavior of co-citation clusters is studied over a wide range of similarity values, and we demonstrate the existence of critical or percolation transitions marked by a sudden expansion of cluster size with a small decrease in similarity which, in most cases, reflects the emergence of a giant component on the overall graph for the dataset. The study was motivated by the question of how to set appropriate thresholds for delineating individual research areas that identify, as far as possible, natural boundaries, in view of the fact that a threshold or criterion appropriate for one area may not be appropriate for another. We explore the rate of change in cluster size as a possible boundary indicator. The relationship of this critical behavior to maps of science is discussed.     

Exploring the development of competence in Lean management through action learning groups: a study of the introduction of Lean to a facilities management function

The introduction of a Lean approach to management requires the development of understanding and capability. This in turn requires a structured training intervention and other supporting activities. This paper explores, through a case study, the way in which action learning groups (ALGs) supported the development of Lean capabilities in the facilities management (FM) function of a large organisation. This case study indicates that Lean can be applied in a FM context and that ALGs are effective in supporting such a development in capability. Some environmental factors are identified as having an impact on the likelihood of success in using ALGs: leadership engagement, perceived level of empowerment, organisational readiness, level of resource committed and individual readiness to be involved.