This study is an evaluation of the educational effectiveness of three courses in the Small Business Management Training Programme conducted in several districts of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The evaluation utilizes the concept of adoption to determine the degree to which respondents have made use of the specified business skills and techniques taught within the courses. The study also attempts to measure the reaction of respondents to the courses in general, and to the instructors and course contents specifically. Data for the analysis were collected by interviewing a random sample of participants in each course from the population of participants in the Lower Mainland of B.C. There was a significant increase in the degree of adoption among respondents in all courses following participation in the programme. Gains in the degree of adoption were significant at the 1 per cent level of confidence. An analysis of adoption for each specific technique within each course indicates that the degree of adoption was not uniform among these techniques. An analysis of variance among means of adoption scores in relation to several characteristics of respondents indicated that three characteristics, namely education, the relationship of the respondent to the business, and the number of employees in the respondent's business, had a significant relationship to the degree to which respondents adopted the techniques. Differences among means were significant for the three characteristics at the 5 per cent level of confidence. The recorded scores on the three scales used to measure reactions to course, instructor, and course content respectively indicated a favourable reaction in each case and for each course. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The thesis responds to Richard O'Brien's pronouncement that geography is rapidly losing purchase as an explanation of the structure of global financial markets. I suggest that O'Brien is in error. Drawing on the work of Gordon Clark and Kevin O'Connor, I argue that financial products have logical, geographical outcomes, predicated on different informational requirements. 1 consider one particular financial product, venture capital. Interviews with financial professionals in Vancouver demonstrate that venture capital has a distinctly local geography of production. Market participants cluster in Vancouver to maximise access to, and interpretation of, information regarding venture companies. Contrary to the obliteration of geography, I argue for its continued importance, represented by the existence of smaller financial hubs, such as Vancouver, and which act as information niches for specific financial products. Further, the thesis suggests that the services involved in the production of venture capital also have distinct geographies. Services have logical locations, dictated by their informational requirements. I consider three services involved in the production of venture equities: trading, corporate finance, and sales. Contrasting the periods 1970-1990, and 1990 to the present, I argue that, because of their informational compositions, the three services had divergent experiences of technological and regulatory change. In the period 1970-1990, all three functions were informationally bound to the city. Traders and salespeople required up-to-the-minute market data, and this demanded a presence near the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Financiers prioritised information about promoters and directors of venture companies, and assembled this through face-to-face interaction in Vancouver. Since 1990, however, the geographies of trading, corporate finance, and sales have been re-made. As up-to-the minute market information was automated and rendered almost ubiquitous, trading and sales functions benefited from increased locational flexibility. Traders centralised, while salespeople decentralised, locating closer to their clients. The location of financiers, by contrast, changed very little. Still dependent upon interaction with directors of venture companies, financiers find a Vancouver location most convenient.

The thesis responds to Richard O'Brien's pronouncement that geography is rapidly losing purchase as an explanation of the structure of global financial markets. I suggest that O'Brien is in error. Drawing on the work of Gordon Clark and Kevin O'Connor, I argue that financial products have logical, geographical outcomes, predicated on different informational requirements. 1 consider one particular financial product, venture capital. Interviews with financial professionals in Vancouver demonstrate that venture capital has a distinctly local geography of production. Market participants cluster in Vancouver to maximise access to, and interpretation of, information regarding venture companies. Contrary to the obliteration of geography, I argue for its continued importance, represented by the existence of smaller financial hubs, such as Vancouver, and which act as information niches for specific financial products. Further, the thesis suggests that the services involved in the production of venture capital also have distinct geographies. Services have logical locations, dictated by their informational requirements. I consider three services involved in the production of venture equities: trading, corporate finance, and sales. Contrasting the periods 1970-1990, and 1990 to the present, I argue that, because of their informational compositions, the three services had divergent experiences of technological and regulatory change. In the period 1970-1990, all three functions were informationally bound to the city. Traders and salespeople required up-to-the-minute market data, and this demanded a presence near the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Financiers prioritised information about promoters and directors of venture companies, and assembled this through face-to-face interaction in Vancouver. Since 1990, however, the geographies of trading, corporate finance, and sales have been re-made. As up-to-the minute market information was automated and rendered almost ubiquitous, trading and sales functions benefited from increased locational flexibility. Traders centralised, while salespeople decentralised, locating closer to their clients. The location of financiers, by contrast, changed very little. Still dependent upon interaction with directors of venture companies, financiers find a Vancouver location most convenient. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate