Developing a cost benefit and social value framework in micro-provider contexts; third sector and university partnership

Lead Research Organisation: Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Manchester Metro Uni Bus School (MMUBS)

Abstract

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Description The end of project report outlined a theoretical model for 'growth mindset' based on our literature review, workshop series and engagement with Winning Pitch coaches. Together with the relationship developed as a result of the KE project, this model provided the basis for securing funding from the GrowthAccelerator Growth Observatory to refine and test our theory. This empirical work identified six proposed components of 'growth mindset': Market Expertise; Business Vision; Active Decision Making; Growth Drive, Sales Drive and Innovation Drive. The GrowthAccelerator research funding and the findings that it generated are directly attributable to the ESRC Knowledge Exchange award. The original award was geared towards finding new ways to support business growth in small firms and we have engaged extensively with practitioners in this area through our blog posts (on the Centre for Enterprise and GrowthAccelerator / Business Growth Service websites (which received more than 2000 unique views), an animated film on Youtube (523 views to date), workshops and webinars. In addition to academic outputs (those post-dating the Key Findings report are listed below) we have developed summary and full length reports which have been made available online and widely publicised under the Business Growth Service banner. The formal public launch of the empirical work has been delayed due to reorganisation and rebranding of the government's business growth support services and is now planned for spring 2015. We expect further impacts to accrue as a result. To date, the findings have been used to inform and adapt sessions on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme delivered by the Centre for Enterprise within Manchester Metropolitan University where the PI and investigative team are based. In relation to Market Expertise and Sales Drive there is an increased focus on the value proposition and promoting an understanding of the business relative to the market place. This is combined with methods for managing sales and the role of the owner manager in helping other people in the business to sell. In relation to Business Vision, participants spend a full session considering and clarifying the mission and vision for the business using the 'business model canvas' approach. Scenario testing enables different future states of the business to be considered and the vision refined. To encourage Active Decision Making a session on risk now involves extensive discussion of heuristics and biases with participants encouraged to reflect on their decision making processes. Peer support accessed through growth groups ensures that decisions turn into actions. In order to stimulate Growth Drive the programme includes exploration of personal goals, drivers for growth and exit strategies in each business. A growth plan is developed using financial scenario planning to consider different growth rates and their financial implications. A golden envelope exercise encourages businesses to consider the potential impact of external funding and tends to increase growth aspiration. Innovation is a factor in the programme selection process. Selecting participants with the capacity for innovating helps to ensure that the conditions for learning and subsequent growth are in place. A recent progress report (November 2014 ) uses 'intervention off' control groups and shows the programme to account for between 10 and 25 percent net additional growth in employment terms and suggests a similar impact for increased turnover. The progress report states that "using the most conservative estimate, the control group analysis established a boost to employment growth of 10% after one year and this would lead to an additional 60,000 employees in these businesses; using an average GVA per filled job figure of £45,000 this would correspond to an additional GVA of £2.7billion in the UK economy after only one year" (p42). Implementation of the findings as described above has strengthened programme delivery and helped to achieve the portion of these impacts for which Manchester Metropolitan University (one of five HEI delivery partners) is responsible. We are aware that the findings are being taken up and used in different ways by the Winning Pitch coaches that we engaged through the project. The findings were also presented to the Chartered Mangement Institute at Holyrood, Edinburgh in January 2015 and our animated film will be shown by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce in its public spaces and will therefore be seen by visiting businesses. We are confident that a much wider group of practitioners have benefited from the learning given the readership of our online material. While the ESRC award and the subsequent empirical research are complete we are continuing to develop our findings to support business growth. We are currently in discussion with the government's Business Growth Service about a further project to develop a toolkit based on the six suggested growth mindset components. Such a toolkit would have very widespread applicability and provides potential for further impact at a national scale. Specific activity to engage policy makers has included dissemination of the empirical findings at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Local Growth on 24th November 2014, Portcullis House, Westminster. Attendees included MPs, think tank representatives, policy officers and government analysts. The meeting was hosted by James Morris MP (APPG co-chair) with presentations by Tom Walker (Director, Cities and Local Growth Unit, (Cabinet Office, BIS, DCLG)) and Professor Henry Overman (Director, ESRC What Works Centre for Local Growth, London School of Economics). Interest in the research findings from policy focused audiences is evident by a number of enquiries into availability of the reports, for example from Department for Business Innovation and Skills officers) but the delayed launch date has limited the potential for impact to materialise in this sphere so far. Academic outputs not reported in Key Findings: McNeill, T., Schofield, C., (2014), The role of the individual entrepreneur in driving business growth, British Academy of Management, Belfast. (September 11, 2014). McNeill, T., Antcliff, V., Schofield, C., (2014), What drives high growth? The role of the individual entrepreneur in driving growth, Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Manchester, UK. (November 4, 2014 - November 6, 2014). (winner of 'best paper' in the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Realities track)
First Year Of Impact 2012
Sector Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Other
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Description Collaboration with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council 
Organisation Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution As part of the Placement Fellowship the project brought together a number of practitioners, academic and local authority people interested in social value measurement. An event and steering group was held, where Dave Wilson from TMBC presented the work that he had been doing with Wooden Canal Boat Society around an SROI forecast. Michael Bull and Dave Wilson subsequently developed an article for publication in the Social Enterprise Journal (July 2013, paper accepted for publication)
Start Year 2012