Notice of RetractionThe Distinctiveness of External Services for Small Business Sector: Evidence from China

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

Adopting an evidenced-based approach, this paper seeks to examine the usage of external services by small business sectors in China. The empirical data are based on the first large-scale survey of small businesses and service providers designed and organised by the authors in Chengdu, Lanzhou and Shenzhen between November 2005 and March 2006. The three cities were selected to enable the market conditions to be assessed in cities that are at different levels of economic development. The paper shows there is a variety of business services market in China. Using logistic models it is found that firm size, sector, exporter and growth-intention appear to the important factors influencing demand side of services. It is also indicated that profession staff, referral via local SME bureau and networking appear to the main variables influencing supply-side behaviour.