Best Overall Paper award for WBS academic

WBS Associate Professor Sukanya Sen Gupta's co-authored paper, The context-dependent nature of small firms' relations with support agencies: A three sector study in the UK published in 2010 in the International Small Business Journal (ISBJ), has been awarded Best Paper Overall by the consulting editors of this journal. The award was given at the end of 2011. Co-authors are Paul Edwards and Chin-Ju Tsai.

The ISBJ is a leading journal of international repute and has a Three Star rating in the Association of Business School's listing of journals. The award was based on five categories: focus - contemporary/continuing area of interest concern; theoretical positioning; methodological rigour; policy and practical implications; and interest for future research activity.

The paper sheds light on strategic networking in small firms by exploring the nature of links with firms' strategies and resources through a study of 89 firms in three sectors. The findings indicate that the context of the sector is central to explaining the level of involvement in strategic networks. Implications for policy-makers and business support agencies are that there is a need to be sensitive to highly specific contextual factors in different sectors, and for the firms themselves the lesson is to develop distinct kinds of external relationships, depending on its own context and strategic position.