W hile few scholars would claim nowadays that small businesses are the panacea for the economic ills of a country, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that a rising rate of new firm formation, together with efforts to improve the performance of existing firms, can add significantly to the employment base and economic efficiency of many countries. For example, Timmons (1989) argues that around 1.3 million new businesses were started in the USA in 1988 and that the great majority of the net new jobs brought into existence in the USA in the 1980s came from new and developing firms. In the United Kingdom Curran (1986) contends that, although the statistics on small business formation are far from satisfactory, there has been a significant increase in the number and scope of small business ventures since 1970.