Research linking graduates to SMEs is timely, since there is growing interest
in the issue of entrepreneurship among graduates (Gavron et al., 1998; Day and
Reynolds, 1996). Various means of evaluating skills value are explored in this
paper and a model developed from Porter's value chain (1985) is presented as
being appropriate for evaluating SME managerial activities. This empirical
paper pertains to research carried out by the author between 1996-1998 in the
county of Suffolk. The project was funded by the Department for Education
and Employment (DfEE) which was seeking to evaluate the adoption and use of
graduate skills in SMEs. More specifically, the research evaluated a brokerage
service and in so doing examined linkages between managers of SMEs and
graduates through the medium of the Internet.