Knowledge Works

Five Major Knowledge Initiatives

Global Research: Focuses on various topics that the ICSB community researches collectively. In 2007, ICSB community and Dell Inc. embarked on a Global Technology Study. The study included a 12 country survey of small business owners and decision makers and a targeted survey of international small business researchers, practitioners, and consultants conducted by ICSB. The study confirmed that IT is extremely important in the growth of small businesses world-wide. To learn more about this study, please visit our Global research page.

Global Dialog: Similar to the Global Research initiative, the Global Dialog research brings together experts from around the globe to discuss topics of importance to ICSB community. Various global dialog topics are underway such as entrepreneurship education, social entrepreneurship, women leadership, and SME technology transfer. These topics are driven by ICSB members. The entrepreneurship education topic is headed by Collin Dunn, past president of ICSB, from ICSB Australia & New Zealand affiliate. The Social Entrepreneurship education topic is managed by Debbi Brock from the ICSB affiliate in the United States. The Women Leadership initiative is managed collaboratively by our affiliates in Canada and the United States. The SME Technology transfer topic is headed by Dr. Heon Deok Yoon from our S. Korea affiliate.

Knowledge Center: A one-stop shop for all of ICSB conference proceedings, white papers, innovative teaching resources, and experiential learning materials will be available to our members. ICSB partnered with ProQuest, a leading "aggregated database vendor" (ADV), operating internationally, which offers fee-based access to (and navigation of) more than 125 billion digital pages of world scholarship. ICSB plans to be the premier international depository of knowledge on small businesses and entrepreneurship. Our affiliates allow our members to gain access to an international perspective that is not available anywhere else.  The Knowledge Center is currently in development with an aggressive launch date. ICSB is going back to its archives to make conference proceedings available online. Also, ICSB is partnering with a leading online video provider to be able to showcase business cases and material. We will make a major announcement soon with the initial launch.

Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM):   The primary purpose of the Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM), published by Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the ICSB, is to publish scholarly research articles in the fields of small business management and entrepreneurship. As the official journal of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), the JSBM is recognized as a primary instrument for projecting and supporting the goals and objectives of this organization, which include scholarly research and the free exchange of ideas. The journal, which is circulated in 60 countries around the world, is a leader in the field of small business research. As member of ICSB, the JSBM will be sent to you as part of your membership benefits. Also, you will receive JSBM e-alerts on the upcoming editions. The new ICSB web site will start to feature the authors of some of the articles of JSBM and allow for online dialog between the authors and readers. This initiative is the first of its kind with any academic journal. Dr. Chandra Mishra, our esteemed editor and eminent scholar and professor at Florida Atlantic University, is continuously striving to make JSBM better.

Knowledge Links: ICSB, having a global network of members, is able to identify resources of information we think will benefit other members that are not aware of it. For example, in 2007, The NFIB Research Foundation in the United States developed a comprehensive web site on Small Business research. The 411SBFacts.com web site collected information from telephone surveys of small employers. New Poll data are added to 411SmallBusinessFacts.com eight times annually. These Knowledge Links identify these resources from around the world and are collected in one location for our members to learn about and access.