This book is the third volume in an annual series originating from the annual international High Technology Small Firms Conference, first held at Manchester Business School in the autumn of 1995. The conference continues to grow in popularity, and the internationally derived community of regular and occasional contributors to this conference are reflected in the papers that have been selected for Volume Three. There is a 'critical mass' dimension to these volumes because not only do the papers represent a 'time slice' of 'state of the art' high technology small firm research in a given year, but they also add to the evolving body of work with a 'time series' dimension.