ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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Micro and home-based business enterprises and the third sector: Conceptual and methodological developments in identifying and profiling this hidden economy.
by
Wendy Earles
James Cook University

There is little known about the micro and home-based business enterprise sector (MHB) of the economy in tropical Far North Queensland (FNQ), Australia. It consists of a wide variety of ability and experience. There is a necessity to value this growing (national estimates are 6% per annum) but hidden sector and its potential as a viable sector of the economy given that futurists predict that people will increasingly create their own jobs/work. Current assumptions about this sector based on anecdotal local evidence are that considerable diversity exists in nature, distribution, profiles (needs and issues) and sustainability in relation to location, class and gender aspects. There are three key concerns for this sector: the viability of individual MHBs; the sustainability of MHBs as a sector of the economy; and the potential for growth from individual or clusters of MHBs to mainstream businesses.

The key methodological and conceptual research questions at this stage are: How could we identify and access MHBs? Who might they be and what might be their characteristics? How many MHBs could there be there in this area? What service/product types might be present? How may local MHBs operate? What could the phenomenon of MHBs be about (need, life style, childcare, real alternative/choice)? What could be the range of needs and issues for MHBs? Are they likely to be stable as MHBs or could they be in transition to larger businesses? How could local third sector development agencies support/sustain MHBs? How could appropriate MHBs or cluster of MHBs be assisted to grow to become mainstream businesses?

Industry and university partners agreed to incrementally develop a research program in the area of micro and home-based business enterprises in tropical Far North Queensland. The industry partners' needs are for conceptual development on micro and home-based business definitions and parameters in specific areas of FNQ and quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence on the nature, distribution and profiles (defining characteristics and needs) of micro and home-based businesses. The industry partner is a third sector organisation with a mandate that includes the support of this sector in this region.

University researchers are interested in engaging in location, class and gender analyses of this growing alternative employment sector and the role of third sector organizations and networks in enhancing the viability and sustainability of this sector. These analyses would seek to link existing theorising on local alternate economies, social capital, and social/economic entrepreneurism (risk and opportunity) with empirical evidence from this region. The university is a large third sector organisation with a mandate to provide research support to the region.

Conceptual development and field authentication of definitions, identification strategies, access and rapport-building strategies, sampling strategies, information collection methods and analysis methods was the critical first project in this research program. This paper will share these conceptual and methodological developments with researchers interested in researching other economies.

Date received: September 30, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caml-10.