Home-based business: challenging their Cinderella status

This paper argues that home-based businesses (HBBs) do not deserve their Cinderella status in small business research and should attract much more attention from policy-makers. Over half of all small firms in advanced economies are home-based. Various factors are likely to drive this proportion higher. Moreover, UK studies show that HBB are serious economic undertakings, are involved in a diverse range of activities and are not any less growth oriented than other types of small business. Although the majority of HBBs only provide employment for their owner and sometimes one or two other persons, they do provide considerable work for others indirectly, through collaboration. A small proportion of HBBs have grown to a significant size and are engaged in international sales. HBBs also have important environmental, social and place-specific benefits. These themes are elaborated in the papers which follow in this special issue