While the actions of large companies are the subject of most business news cycles, small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. These businesses employ over half of all U.S. workers, and they account for 64 percent of net new jobs. Small business (often defined as a business with less than 100 workers) may be small, but it is everywhere. It is innovative, adaptive, and has a ubiquitous presence in most every American city.

Like many small firms, the fourth edition of the Encyclopedia of Small Business has adapted to fit the current economic times. This edition, like its predecessors, features new entries and reflects the rapidly changing environment by intensive updating of its contents. Since the last edition the global economy has been convulsed by a recession brought on by disruptions in the world’s financial sector, and a comprehensive overhaul of the American health care system has been signed into law, to name just two events with significant longterm economic implications. This encyclopedia reflects all of these changes. Virtually every entry has had to be revised, many rather extensively, to mirror accurately the dynamically changing economic environment.

EOSB-4, like earlier editions, is intended as a resource for the small-business owner, for the would-be entrepreneur, and for students of business generally. It deals extensively with most aspects of business activity, from human resources on up to organizational issues; production and productivity; financial activities from accounting details on up to stock trading; purchasing, sales, and marketing; accounting and measurement issues, including various forms of valuation and assessment; and also with legal forms and regulatory requirements. It deals with starting, buying, and selling businesses as well as taking them public or buying them back from the public. EOSB-4 also attempts to cover major issues that shape the business environment, like globalization and Web 2.0, or shape the company, like business ethics. In most cases, the point of view reflected is that of the small-business owner. All events in all companies have the same fundamental character, but the same issue confronting a small business will very often play out differently than it will in a huge organization.