Michael Schaper (BA, MComm, PhD) is an adjunct professor at Curtin BusinessSchool, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, and is also deputy chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Michael was previously dean of Murdoch Business School and head of the School of Business at Bond University, and held the foundation professorial chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has extensive experience in the area of small business through his previous roles, which have included appointments as Small Business Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory, and as President of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand. Before his academic career, Michael worked for several years as a professional small business adviser in Australia. In addition, he ran his own business and was involved in numerous other start-up projects. He holds a PhD and a Master of Commerce degree from Curtin University of Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia. Michael is the author or co-author of eight books, all in the fi eld of business management, numerous journal articles and has been an occasional columnist for
The Australian Financial Review ,
The Australian and
Business Review Weekly .
Thierry Volery is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Swiss Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. From September 1999 until 2002, he was Professor of Entrepreneurship and Management at EM Lyon Business School, France. He was previously a senior lecturer in Entrepreneurship and International Business at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. Thierry has been a visiting professor at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and at the Graduate School of Management, University of Western Australia. He has served on several editorial boards, including the Journal of Small Business Management , the International Small Business Journal , the Journal of Enterprising Culture and the International Journal of Educational Management . He holds a doctorate in business economics and social sciences from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His research interests include the nature of entrepreneurial work, the health of entrepreneurs and innovation in small fi rms.
Dr Paull Weber comes from a banking background, where he directly managed over 40 staff and a portfolio of high net-worth business owners. He began his academic ‘sea change’ in 2001, completing an Honours degree, a research Masters degree and his PhD in six years. He has taught management and marketing courses in small business management, entrepreneurship, marketing communications and marketing principles. His research activities have been concentrated in the areas of mature entrepreneurship, lifestyle entrepreneurship, small business success metrics, organisational commitment and intranet effectiveness.Paull has contributed several book chapters, journal articles and case studies in the disciplines of entrepreneurship and tourism. He is currently the lead investigator in a long-term initiative to benchmark small business performance across all industry types in Western Australia. He is also the deputy chair of Business Foundations, a business incubator, advisory and training organisation that assists more than fi ve hundred businesses each year.
Dr Kate Lewis is a senior lecturer in the School of Management, and a research associate of the New Zealand Centre for Small and Medium Enterprise Research, at the Wellington campus of Massey University, New Zealand. She is also an associate fellow of the New Zealand Work and Labour Market Institute (Auckland University of Technology) and a vice-president of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand. Her research is primarily focused on entrepreneurship and small fi rms, and she has a particular interest in youth entrepreneurship. Other areas of work include enterprise policy and business assistance, environmental management and small fi rms, gender and entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial identity.
