The first High Technology Small Firms Conference was held at Manchester Business School in July 1993. In order to gain a wider audience for the work presented at this annual conference, a series of edited books was initiated and the first volume entitled New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s was published in 1994. As a continuation of this series, the chapters included in Volume Two comprise the best papers to be presented at the second High Technology Small Firms Conference, again held at Manchester Business School in September 1994. Together with collections of edited papers to follow in future years, the two existing volumes represent a record of an evolving research agenda on high-technology small firms, survival and growth.