Business Link, strong ties, and the walls of silence: small and medium-sized enterprises and external business-service expertise

The operation both of private and of public sector organisations consists of a complex interplay between in-house and external expertise and knowledge. The authors use a unique survey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in England to explore their use of external expertise and the location of external advisers. They also draw upon surveys both of private sector consultants and of personal business advisers (PBAs) employed by Business Link companies. Network analysis is used to identify the ways in which weak and strong ties either enable or constrain opportunities for SMEs to access the knowledge and expertise available both from private sector business-service companes and from state agencies. SME owner-managers have too many strong ties with their local business community. The paucity of weak ties with individuals located elsewhere in the UK restricts the ability of SMEs to search for business-service expertise outside their local area. An analysis of the Business Link initiative is undertaken which suggests that the spatial monopoly held by each Business Link comapny does not encourage them to participate in the development of a national knowledge-and-enterprise network. The analysis suggests that a dual information economy may be developing in the UK in which large firms are able to access specialist external expertise irrespective of location, whereas SMEs are tied into local providers of more generalist expertise.