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Given that SMEs were shaped by their home business environment, it may be reasonable to
shift on studying HGFs at the regional level.
All previously discussed studies have determined HGFs at a national level. This omission in
the HGF literature was recognised by Brown and Mawson (2015) as well. Nevertheless,
some scholars such as Almus (2002) and Bruderl and Preisendorfer (2000) understood the
importance of regions. Recently, Mason et al. (2009) concluded that HGFs had a positive
impact on employment growth at a regional scale. Contrary, Brown and Mawson (2015)
contradicted that by investigating Scottish counties. They showed that employment growth
was generated outside the region, therefore, did not create that many jobs and wealth
within the area. These findings were at least partly confirmed by the recent study (Foreman-
Peck & Nicholls, 2015) investigating relocation of firms within the nation. However, Brown
and Mawson’s findings may be influenced by relatively small sample size and the period of
unstable macroeconomic climate. Those trends may need to be further examined. As Brown
and Mawson (2015, 16) recommended, the further study should ‘examine the nature,
quality, durability and spatiality of the employment and spillovers created by these highly
dynamic, entrepreneurial firms.’
Job quality
The recent review of job quality by Burchell et al. (2014) highlighted the lack of clear
definition of job quality and inconsistent methodologies. Those varied from highly subjective
workers’ evaluations (Staines & Quinn, 1979) to various matrices. For instance, two recent
European studies (Koerner and Puch, 2011; Green, 2013) provided more sophisticated
models. Green (2013) applied Green and Mostafa’s (2012) model particularly designed for
the European Working Conditions Survey and compared EU nations. Nevertheless, given
those surprising results (see Green and Mustafa, 2012) and unavailability of regional data,
Koerner and Puch’s (2011) method may be more reasonable (see Figure 3). It is worth noting
that some of the dimensions referred to the nation while others were firm specific.
Figure 3. Koerner and Punch (2011:131) quality of employment - seven-layer model; translation taken from
Burchell et al. (2014)
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