Robert A. Blackburn (PhD) is Director of Research, Kingston Business School and HSBC Professor of Small Business Studies, Kingston University, UK. He has extensive experience of researching the smaller enterprise, using a variety of methodological approaches. He is editor of the International Small Business Journal and co-author of Researching the Small Enterprise (with James Curran). He is a member of the Institute of Small Business Affairs and the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.