'Peter Johnson's wealth of experience in analysing small firms through an economics lens shines through in this book. It focuses on the key issues, cutting through the swathes of irrelevance that so often characterise entrepreneurship books, so as to produce a clear, crisp and accessible read for students and researchers alike.' - David Storey, Associate Dean Research & Director of Enterprise Group, Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick

'Peter Johnson, a pioneering researcher of the economics of small firms, has taken the disparate and largely technical economics literature on entrepreneurship and transformed it into an accessible synthesis that highlights its wider relevance. This much needed book provides undergraduates, policy makers, and practitioners with a rare opportunity to gain a solid perspective of the insights of economics research on small firms from a single source.' - Professor Andrew Burke, Director of the Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurial Performance & Economics, Cranfield School of Management

'This is an excellent book. The author Professor Peter Johnson has had a distinguished teaching and research career in the area of new and small firms and he has put his expertise to good use in this book... that should be essential reading in regional economics, and firms and industry courses and for anyone interested in understanding the behaviour and performance of small firms.' - Professor Brian Ashcroft, University of Strathclyde, UK