The research also focused on the factors that promote and impede collaborative learning efforts among small businesses regarding crime management. Information came from qualitative interviews with the participants regarding difficulties for small businesses in the area. The interviewers did not ask participants to tell them specifically about crime. They conducted and taped the interviews between January and July 1996. A major theme of the narratives of the owner-managers was control; participants believed that both the incidence and the impact of crime were controllable personally. However, the nature of discourse among owner-managers is not sufficiently sustained, open, creative, planned, or focused to promote effective collaborative crime management efforts. Tables presenting interview excerpts and 39 reference notes (Author abstract modified)