Since the mid-1970s, schemes that provide links between education and business have burgeoned in Scotland. In 1992, the Scottish Office Education Department (SOED) decided to fund a research project that aimed to map and analyze the range and complexity of education-industry links in Scotland and to suggest the most fruitful areas for future policy development. Data were derived from interviews conducted with key individuals involved in business-education links from education authorities, the Technical and Vocational Educational Initiative (TEVA), schools, and industry. Eight case studies also examined the following topics: pupil work experience, teacher placements, enterprise activity in the primary sector, education-business development in one secondary school, education-business links from the perspective of small businesses, mentoring within a Compact, the development of education-business partnerships, and the concept of "progression" in such partnerships. Findings indicate that an enormous amount of time, money, and energy went into developing education-business links in Scotland. However, interview respondents often described initiatives as being high profile and short-term. Some patterns of partnership development are as follows: (1) cycles of economic optimism and pessimism influence policy and lead to either long-term or short-term reforms; (2) education-business links have greater impact when they are part of long-term reforms; (3) the focus of business-education partnerships keeps shifting from "relevance" to "competitive excellence"; and (4) schools adopt policy to match their own values through a process of domestication and negotiation. The case studies suggest that educational practices have not changed much in Scotland. Little consensus exists about the focus or meaning of education-business links, nor is there evidence for such partnerships' effects on the economy or on learning outcomes. Some recommendations include: evaluate the long-term learning gains and economic consequences of business-education links; integrate such links into other progressions; maintain a central resource on developments in business-education links; and build research into educational development. (LMI)