SPATIAL RESPONSIVENESS OF SMALL FIRMS

A spread in the growth of small firms in disparate regions within a co untry seems incongruous to many regional scientists. Nevertheless, thi s phenomenon can be observed in almost every country. Start-up and gro wth of small businesses are not strictly confined to a particular type of spatial environment. In this paper we examine how small businesses manage to start and grow under different locational conditions. To th at end, we make a qualitative and longitudinal comparison between the environmental behaviour of successful small firms located in the Dutch periphery and similar firms located in the country's economic heartla nd, known as the Randstad. Although the interregional differences in e conomic conditions seem to be moderate in the Netherlands, the periphe ral firms had to deal with more environmental constraints than the cen tral ones. However, at the same time the former showed considerable ab ility to deal with these barriers. Furthermore, the causes underlying 'the environmental responsiveness' of the small firms investigated cou ld be traced either to characteristics of the locational environment i tself or to features of the organizations from which the firms origina ted.