xvi Preface At an international level, the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) is seen as critical in relation both to capabilities within firms and to the innovative role that small businesses are expected to play in the emerging knowledge economy (EC, 2005; BERR, 2008). In addition, it is argued that the effective use of ICT is often considered to be a prerequisite for small business survival (Packham, 2002; Packham et al., 2005). There are few signs however that Europe, and the UK in particular, have caught up let alone overtaken the US in reaping the productivity gains from the effective production, implementation and optimisation of ICT applications (Vaitilingam, 2004; Timmer & van Ark, 2005; Havik et al., 2008). The importance of the small business sector to economic growth has long been recognised. For example, the Ministerial Declaration at the OECD Conference held in Istanbul, 2004, attended by rep-