This article presents an overarching review of the evidence regarding enterprise diversity. It discusses the context of ethnic minorities and women in enterprise and summarises research evidence relating to their relative access to finance, market selection and management skills. Policy within the field of diversity and enterprise is characterised by a number of tensions and unresolved questions including the presence of perceived or actual discrimination, the quantity and quality of ethnic minority and women-led businesses, potential market failure in the support provided to diverse enterprises and the substantive uniqueness of ethnic minority and women-led enterprises. Particular implications for policy and practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.

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Highlighting the limitations of R&D, this paper champions design activity as the phenomenon that captures knowledge mobilisation at the firm level, especially amongst small firms in developing countries. Still, knowledge becomes a capital (factor input) proper when employed in production. Volumes of new products sold could suggest the market value of utilised knowledge capital the same way the resale value of plant and equipment often approximates the stock of physical capital. Conversely, shares of sales of new products arguably capture an altogether different phenomenon: product-related firm transmutation. Findings suggest that the deeper utilisation of knowledge has significant productivity effects and supersedes mere mobilisation of knowledge. Further, undergoing transmutation towards the production of more of new products relative to incumbent products has no significant relationship with labour productivity. Firms should therefore prioritise the deeper exploitation of given new knowledge rather than potentially prodigal shifts in production towards new products as such.