Enterprise Research Centre (ERC)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Warwick Business School
Abstract
Past research has largely failed to develop a robust understanding of SME performance. There are three reasons for this: first, there has been a failure to recognise the importance of entrepreneurial ambition and leadership capabilities; second, studies have not acknowledged the variety of ways in which growth occurs and its dependence on firms' operating context; and, third, 'growth' has very often been regarded as a short-term outcome variable rather than part of a dynamic process.
To address these issues our research proposals adopt a dynamic and multi-level approach embracing the entrepreneurial team, the firm and its operating environment. Our proposed research is organised into six work packages (WPs) each with a specified lead researcher. The first three months of each WP will be used to compile a thematic White Paper - a state of the art survey. WPs also have shared milestones at 12, 24 and 36 months linked to the State of Small Business in Britain report and SME Summit.
Three work packages focus on the entrepreneurial leadership team and growth. These are:
WP1: Entrepreneurial Ambition and Growth (Lead: Autio) - research will focus on what shapes entrepreneurial ambition in different contexts, and the interaction between entrepreneurial ambition and other drivers of SME performance. This WP adopts an econometric, multi-level approach and will build on the recently developed Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) methodology. Analysis will be international and comparative.
WP2: Entrepreneurial Leadership, Capabilities and Growth (Lead: Lockett) - this WP focuses on the factors which influence business owners' growth intentions and capabilities and their influence on growth. How do the mental models entrepreneurs (and their teams) have of their ventures shape their growth intentions? What factors shape these mental models and the capabilities of firms' leadership teams?
WP3: Diversity and SMEs in the Emerging Economy - Individual and Household Influences (Lead: Carter) - this WP builds on the work of the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) to understand the barriers to entrepreneurial growth in under-represented groups. A central theme will be the relationships between individuals' household and community setting, ambition and their decisions to finance and grow SMEs. Engagement with the EDA will maximise practical impacts from the research.
Our three other proposed work packages have the SME as the unit of analysis:
WP4: Finance and Growth (Lead: Wright) - this WP will explore the impact of access to finance on growth at different points in firms' development and for different types of firms reflecting both the demand for and supply of SME finance. Research issues will include: the role of finance in explaining firm survival and growth; the relationship between growth and debt finance; borrowers' perceptions of credit supply and issues of discouraged borrowers; the determinants of banks' lending decisions; finance and growth in different types of firms.
WP5: SME Innovation, exporting and growth - An Embedded Perspective (Lead: Love) - this WP will focus on the inter-related barriers and enablers of SME innovation and exporting and their growth implications. Key questions will relate to: the effect of innovation and exporting on growth performance; the key drivers and barriers of SME innovation and exports; the effects of local knowledge, innovation linkages and learning-by-exporting on SME innovation. Analysis will be international and comparative.
WP6: Firm Dynamics, Job Creation and Productivity Growth (Lead: Hart) - this WP focuses on the dynamics of business demography and growth. Which types of firms are responsible for job creation and economic growth? Does the evidence suggest whether SME growth enhances national productivity in the short or longer term? What types of SMEs contribute to job creation and productivity growth?
To address these issues our research proposals adopt a dynamic and multi-level approach embracing the entrepreneurial team, the firm and its operating environment. Our proposed research is organised into six work packages (WPs) each with a specified lead researcher. The first three months of each WP will be used to compile a thematic White Paper - a state of the art survey. WPs also have shared milestones at 12, 24 and 36 months linked to the State of Small Business in Britain report and SME Summit.
Three work packages focus on the entrepreneurial leadership team and growth. These are:
WP1: Entrepreneurial Ambition and Growth (Lead: Autio) - research will focus on what shapes entrepreneurial ambition in different contexts, and the interaction between entrepreneurial ambition and other drivers of SME performance. This WP adopts an econometric, multi-level approach and will build on the recently developed Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) methodology. Analysis will be international and comparative.
WP2: Entrepreneurial Leadership, Capabilities and Growth (Lead: Lockett) - this WP focuses on the factors which influence business owners' growth intentions and capabilities and their influence on growth. How do the mental models entrepreneurs (and their teams) have of their ventures shape their growth intentions? What factors shape these mental models and the capabilities of firms' leadership teams?
WP3: Diversity and SMEs in the Emerging Economy - Individual and Household Influences (Lead: Carter) - this WP builds on the work of the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) to understand the barriers to entrepreneurial growth in under-represented groups. A central theme will be the relationships between individuals' household and community setting, ambition and their decisions to finance and grow SMEs. Engagement with the EDA will maximise practical impacts from the research.
Our three other proposed work packages have the SME as the unit of analysis:
WP4: Finance and Growth (Lead: Wright) - this WP will explore the impact of access to finance on growth at different points in firms' development and for different types of firms reflecting both the demand for and supply of SME finance. Research issues will include: the role of finance in explaining firm survival and growth; the relationship between growth and debt finance; borrowers' perceptions of credit supply and issues of discouraged borrowers; the determinants of banks' lending decisions; finance and growth in different types of firms.
WP5: SME Innovation, exporting and growth - An Embedded Perspective (Lead: Love) - this WP will focus on the inter-related barriers and enablers of SME innovation and exporting and their growth implications. Key questions will relate to: the effect of innovation and exporting on growth performance; the key drivers and barriers of SME innovation and exports; the effects of local knowledge, innovation linkages and learning-by-exporting on SME innovation. Analysis will be international and comparative.
WP6: Firm Dynamics, Job Creation and Productivity Growth (Lead: Hart) - this WP focuses on the dynamics of business demography and growth. Which types of firms are responsible for job creation and economic growth? Does the evidence suggest whether SME growth enhances national productivity in the short or longer term? What types of SMEs contribute to job creation and productivity growth?
Planned Impact
Economic growth is a key UK policy priority. SMEs play a potentially important role in national economic growth both in the short and longer term. The research undertaken by the ERC will provide a more robust, trustworthy and accessible evidence base upon which to make decisions, allocate resources and build effective SME policy.
Our impact proposals aim to establish the ERC (and its on-line presence) as the reference point for SME growth and performance for policy makers, academics, firms and the media. At this point we envisage beneficiaries from the research and other activities of ERC will include:
Policy-makers and those involved in financing and supporting growing SMEs in the UK
Through the Stakeholder Mapping process we aim both to identify the needs of stakeholders but also to seek their input to shaping the ERC research programme. Where possible we will work with stakeholders throughout the funded period to ensure the relevance of the research being undertaken and maximize impact. We see some of the key UK stakeholders in this group being: BIS, regional agencies such as Scottish Enterprise and Invest NI, local business support organisations such as the LEPs and Chambers of Commerce, and more focused business support and advocacy organisations such as the British Bankers Association, British Venture Capital Association, UK Business Angels Association, the CBI, the FSB, the IFB, the IOD, the Institute for Family Business and the Women's Business Council. ERC would seek to work with these organisations on a bilateral basis wherever relevant and inform their activities through:
(a) A Response Group of senior ERC staff who will provide timely input for stakeholders on emerging policy issues and information requests relating to small business growth.
(b) Thematic White Papers, Policy Papers and Research Papers as well as on line and face to face seminars and workshops
(c) An annual State of Small Business in Britain report and associated Summit.
The academic and practice community in the UK and elsewhere
ERC will provide a focal point for the UK SME research community, facilitating networking and maximizing potential synergies in research and knowledge transfer. ERC's work will also be of interest to policy makers internationally and organizations such as the EU, OECD, World Bank and EBRD which contribute to SME policy and support. ERC applicants have pre-existing links to many of these international organizations. Key mechanisms through which we will impact on the academic and practice communities will be:
(a) Working directly with practice and representative groups (e.g. FSB, IFB) to ensure our research informs their strategic thinking and to provide an input into their annual conference and workshop programme.
(b) Academic papers and presentations in leading international journals and conferences
(c) By establishing a broadly based Associates Network of interested academics, firms, policy makers etc.
(d) By establishing a content rich Knowledge Exchange series of thematic Communities of Interest
Media
ERC aims to become the reference point for the UK media in relation to SME growth and performance. Centre staff will also work with the ESRC Press Office to maximise the Centre's public engagement. Publication of Centre White Papers and the State of Small Business in Britain reports will create regular media opportunities. We will also create a searchable Experts Database alongside the Associates Network described earlier.
SMEs
Many ERC staff are directly engaged in business development activities through their teaching activities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and through mechanisms such as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme, the EDA and the Warwick Business Growth Network. ERC research will contribute directly to inform the content of these and other related business development programmes. Programme alumni will be a source of case studies.
Our impact proposals aim to establish the ERC (and its on-line presence) as the reference point for SME growth and performance for policy makers, academics, firms and the media. At this point we envisage beneficiaries from the research and other activities of ERC will include:
Policy-makers and those involved in financing and supporting growing SMEs in the UK
Through the Stakeholder Mapping process we aim both to identify the needs of stakeholders but also to seek their input to shaping the ERC research programme. Where possible we will work with stakeholders throughout the funded period to ensure the relevance of the research being undertaken and maximize impact. We see some of the key UK stakeholders in this group being: BIS, regional agencies such as Scottish Enterprise and Invest NI, local business support organisations such as the LEPs and Chambers of Commerce, and more focused business support and advocacy organisations such as the British Bankers Association, British Venture Capital Association, UK Business Angels Association, the CBI, the FSB, the IFB, the IOD, the Institute for Family Business and the Women's Business Council. ERC would seek to work with these organisations on a bilateral basis wherever relevant and inform their activities through:
(a) A Response Group of senior ERC staff who will provide timely input for stakeholders on emerging policy issues and information requests relating to small business growth.
(b) Thematic White Papers, Policy Papers and Research Papers as well as on line and face to face seminars and workshops
(c) An annual State of Small Business in Britain report and associated Summit.
The academic and practice community in the UK and elsewhere
ERC will provide a focal point for the UK SME research community, facilitating networking and maximizing potential synergies in research and knowledge transfer. ERC's work will also be of interest to policy makers internationally and organizations such as the EU, OECD, World Bank and EBRD which contribute to SME policy and support. ERC applicants have pre-existing links to many of these international organizations. Key mechanisms through which we will impact on the academic and practice communities will be:
(a) Working directly with practice and representative groups (e.g. FSB, IFB) to ensure our research informs their strategic thinking and to provide an input into their annual conference and workshop programme.
(b) Academic papers and presentations in leading international journals and conferences
(c) By establishing a broadly based Associates Network of interested academics, firms, policy makers etc.
(d) By establishing a content rich Knowledge Exchange series of thematic Communities of Interest
Media
ERC aims to become the reference point for the UK media in relation to SME growth and performance. Centre staff will also work with the ESRC Press Office to maximise the Centre's public engagement. Publication of Centre White Papers and the State of Small Business in Britain reports will create regular media opportunities. We will also create a searchable Experts Database alongside the Associates Network described earlier.
SMEs
Many ERC staff are directly engaged in business development activities through their teaching activities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and through mechanisms such as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme, the EDA and the Warwick Business Growth Network. ERC research will contribute directly to inform the content of these and other related business development programmes. Programme alumni will be a source of case studies.
Publications
Agarwal R
(2017)
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal at 10: Retrospect and Prospect Introduction
in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
Ahlers O
(2016)
Opening the Black Box: Power in Buyout Negotiations and the Moderating Role of Private Equity Specialization OPENING THE BLACK BOX
in Journal of Small Business Management
Al-Dajani H
(2015)
Entrepreneurship among the Displaced and Dispossessed: Exploring the Limits of Emancipatory Entrepreneuring
in British Journal of Management
Alam MS
(2022)
Repurposing of existing antibiotics for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
in In silico pharmacology
Alperovych Y
(2013)
Private equity firm experience and buyout vendor source: What is their impact on efficiency?
in European Journal of Operational Research
Alsos G
(2014)
Kinship and business: how entrepreneurial households facilitate business growth
in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development
Alsos G
(2013)
Entrepreneurial Families and Households
Amess K
(2016)
The impact of private equity on firms? patenting activity
in European Economic Review
Anyadike-Danes M
(2015)
An international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth
in Small Business Economics
Anyadike-Danes M
(2013)
Localisation of Industrial Activity across England's LEPs: 2008 & 2012
| Description | 2014 One of ERC's objectives is to generate major policy or practice impacts and in its second year, ERC can evidence doing this in a number of ways. A wide range of engagements have been undertaken and these are not exhaustively recorded in this report. They provide an opportunity for influencing thinking around the evidence base which is difficult to track via individuals and their organisations and may only be felt over the longer term. However, examples of engagement which is already yielding significant impacts are: LEPS and Local Growth The ERC has been actively involved in the local growth agenda on a number of fronts in the last year. June 2014 saw the launch of the LEP Growth Dashboard in collaboration with the GrowthAccelerator team in Grant Thornton. Its purpose is to provide each LEP with a set of simple metrics on the growth of existing firms and start-ups in the LEP area and set these alongside the key barriers to growth flagged by businesses who are seeking to grow and have become a participant in the Growth Accelerator programme. The Dashboard, based primarily on ONS data, can be used as a source of evidence to inform discussions on priorities in business support and includes easily understood metrics which can be readily updated on an annual basis. The LEP Growth Dashboard is now forming an important input into the discussions at LEP level into the focus of business support in the aftermath of the LEP Growth Deals landing in July 2014 and in particular the design of the Growth Hubs and associated business support spend under ESIF allocations from April 2015. We undertook a series of LEP workshops in October and November to disseminate the LEP Growth Dashboard, alongside the industrial sector clusters work developed by Hart and Danes on behalf of BIS, and develop the understanding of key personnel in the LEP network on the value of the Dashboard and what future metrics could be produced The ERC research team are also working closely with the BIS Local Growth team to use the LEP Growth Dashboard framework to inform the shape and focus of the national level Local Growth Strategy. We provided updated and extended data for BIS and CLG in August 2014 and we are in active discussions on further data requirements at local economic area level. Much of this analysis informed our contributions to the FSB report on "A new design: making local support work for business", which was launched in February 2015. Business Support Evaluation. ERC has been involved in a number of discussions with BIS about assessing the impact of business support and in particular advising on how to arrive at a productivity-based evaluation framework. Our contribution built on the evidence provided to the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group Inquiry on SMEs and Productivity in 2014 and which reported in February 2015 (written and oral evidence provided). ERC researchers have been providing expertise to the design and implementation of quasi-experimental evaluation methodologies related to business support. This contribution concerns a number of RCTs related to new business support products and services in England. ERC has been involved in each of the three RCTs currently running in the UK, advising on the initial design of the BIS Growth Voucher programme and having on-going involvement with the other two RCTs - the Growth Impact Pilot and the University Growth Voucher programme run by a consortium of Small Business Charter Business Schools. Both programmes were launched in 2014. ERC have been engaged with the What Works Centre on Local Growth in the context of business support to develop their work with the LEPs. We assisted in the development of an agenda for their meeting in Leeds (October 2014) with the LEPs and hosted by the Cabinet Office to discuss the appetite for experimentation in evaluation across the range of business advice interventions proposed in the SEPs and ESIF documents which go live for funding projects in April 2015. ERC provided the WWC with a spectrum of business advice interventions (from light touch information provision through diagnosis and brokerage to intensive business growth programmes) that could become a menu for LEPs to select from as they engage with this agenda. It is this menu that will provide the framework for the introduction of RCTs in this delivery space. BIS Enterprise 2020 ERC were invited to participate in discussions about the development of the BIS Enterprise 2020 Strategy document. Participation in an initial 'sandpit' workshop in November 2014 with a range of government stakeholders led to a more detailed and focused follow-up discussion with ERC in January 2015 to ensure the policy discussions continue to be grounded in the evidence base as they are developed. In addition, ERC provided a rapid response to a BIS ED exercise on policy prioritisation. 2 of ERC's recommendations were subsequently taken forward in BIS' overall set of priorities. 2015 • We have published two collaborative reports over this period. The innovation benchmarks report was launched with Enterprise Europe Network and the Growth Dashboard was a collaboration with the Business Growth Service. • We are undertaking the evaluation of the Birmingham Venturefest event which was held on the 30th June. ERC also participated in the event reporting on the Growth Dashboard and Innovation Benchmarks reports. • Stephen Roper and Katherine Hathaway did a presentation on ERC to the ESRC Council in May. This focussed very much on ERC's policy focus and impact and engagement activities. • We have been actively engaging with the banks over the last quarter in a series of meetings with Barclays, Lloyds and RBS. Mark Hart presented to Lloyds Board on the Growth Dashboard and M2000 companies and further presentations within Lloyds are planned. Mark Hart has also been working with Matt Smith (CEO, Office, Building and Commercial Banking, RBS) who is leading the REAP London project and has been assisting them with data issues regarding their focus on building a support offer for growth firms in London. • We held a joint event with CDFA (the second of this type) examining the factors shaping the growth of micro-firms. This was well attended and led to some further interesting network opportunities with HMRC. • ERC research was a central feature of two workshops organised by BIS. Results from the Sociology of Enterprise and an element of the work from the Ambition research theme were presented as part of a workshop on entrepreneurial mindsets. Research drawing on Theme 6 was presented at a workshop on productivity. • ERC was invited by UKCES to contribute to its 'Masterclass' series. A presentation drawing on their productivity analysis was given by Jun Du and Karen Bonner (20th Nov 2015). • ERC is working with the Pink Shoe Club to host a joint event (28th Nov) focussed on womens' enterprise. Mark Hart will share some results from the GEM project at this event and other ERC staff will contribute to panel discussions. • ERC have been invited to give a presentation to HMRC on small firms and innovation in December 2015. This is pleasing as it creates an opportunity to identify potential opportunities for further collaboration and data sharing. • ERC continues to be approached by different organisations to provide 'SME intelligence'. One recent example is an invitation from BIS to participate in a workshop on incubators and accelerators as a contribution to the development of a new policy paper. ERC data/evidence currently also supporting at least 3 CSR 2015 bids. 2016 Unlocking UK productivity - internationalisation and innovation in SMEs The report makes the following main arguments: • The UK has an opportunity to enhance its productivity. Whilst before 2008 productivity in the UK was on a strong upward trend, the UK's productivity performance has since weakened. Improving this has become a vital agenda for the UK government. • SMEs have a key role to play in addressing this challenge: The SME contribution to the UK economy is significant. Boosting SME productivity growth can have a significant impact on UK productivity growth at large. • The role of internationalisation and innovation in boosting SME productivity growth has been relatively underexplored. Evidence strongly indicates that those businesses that engage in international activity and innovation are more likely to enhance firm performance - including productivity growth. • It is estimated that between 9 and 12% of non-exporting firms within the UK could become exporters and just over half that do export could become persistent exporters. Together these two groups include more than 110,000 SMEs in the UK economy. If they are successfully encouraged to export or export persistently, an additional £1.15 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) could be added to the UK economy within the first year. • Internationally active SMEs are three times more likely to introduce products or services that are new to their sector than those which are entirely domestic in orientation. Despite this positive relationship, however, only 1 in 5 employer SMEs are exporters. • The limited engagement by SMEs in internationalisation and innovation can be explained, in part, by SMEs' low growth ambition: UK SMEs are demonstrated to be less 'growth inclined' and ambitious than other G8 economies. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor alone has pointed to a 17% growth aspiration in the UK among entrepreneurs vs 27% in the US. Profiling job growth in 2015 The key points emphasised: • Employer enterprises - those with at least one employee, including all businesses from start-ups through to large multinationals - created or added a total of 2.52 million jobs. This was offset by enterprises contracting or going out of business altogether, which saw 1.83 million jobs lost, giving a net job creation figure for the UK SME sector of 695,500. • Of the new jobs added, 1.5 million were created by existing companies expanding. In addition, a record number of start-up firms added a further 1 million. This took the total number of private sector employees to a record 20.3 million. • The figures on UK companies show that 299,591 firms were 'born' in 2014-15. This was the highest number of start-up 'births' in a single year since comparable records began in 1997. • The total number of employer enterprises across the UK rose to just under 1.8 million, also a record. These firms account for approximately one third of all businesses in the UK, the remaining two-thirds (3.6 million) including the self-employed, partnerships and enterprises with zero employees. Other Impact Activities • ERC presented material from the Innovation in Legal Services projects at two workshops organised by the Legal Services Board and the Law Society in November 2015. • ERC partnered with the Department of Trade and Investment (NI) to hold a workshop focussing on 'Innovation in micro-businesses evidence and policy support' in Belfast in November 2015. • ERC were invited to present a summary of current research evidence to the Business Taxation team in HMRC in December 2015. This part of an on-going dialogue with HMRC which we hope will develop into a future collaborative project (on exporting and productivity) and dialogue around Growth Hubs. • ERC together with ISBE (Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) held a meeting to discuss building a range of research led activities which promote SME growth through university/SME engagement. This recognised the transition of the Community of Interest into an ISBE Special Interest Group. Contacts at the meeting led to the opportunity to meet with Business Wales in January. • ERC partnered with UKTI in a November event organised by Warwick Business School to present research results relating to mid-sized businesses. A further series of events are planned for March - June 2016. • Sara Carter was appointed as a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board, Center for Agricultural Business Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Science. • Sara Carter also delivered a 'Distinguished Professorial Address' 'Does Entrepreneurship Make You Wealthy?' University of West of England, October 2015. • ERC's Michael Anyadike-Danes has accepted an appointment onto the Microbusiness Research Portal Advisory Board comprising a range of experts from across government, academia and private sector. The Microbusiness Research Portal is being launched as part of a partnership between the ONS (Office for National Statistics), the University of St Andrews and Middlesex University, with the active support of BIS to provide a powerful source of research evidence for policy-makers and practitioners as well a unique academic research resource for those interested in the characteristics, drivers, growth and development of microbusiness. • Recent PR work to support the launch of Unlocking UK productivity - internationalisation and innovation in SMEs was significantly affected by the news of the attacks in Paris. The pre-Christmas work on the latest business population data was more successful including radio and press coverage. Future plans are being prepared for the forthcoming M2000 Report and Jun Du's report on Productivity as well as on the latest high growth firms data. • ERC continues to be approached by different organisations to provide 'SME intelligence'. One recent example is an invitation from BIS to participate in a workshop on incubators and accelerators as a contribution to the development of a new policy paper. 2016 Our Annual State of Small Business Britain conference was held on 30 November 2016 at the Shard, and we received very positive stakeholder feedback on the event. The Conference was co-hosted this year with Goldman-Sachs. We released the 2016 edition of our UK Local Growth Dashboard at the conference, which was picked up by the BBC in their afternoon news bulletins. More information about the Conference is included in section 4.1 below, and an evaluation report is included with the meeting papers. ERC has been involved in the development and running of two data user groups over recent months. 1. The Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) User Group held its first meeting at the ISBE conference in 2015 and an update session at the 2016 ISBE conference in October. ERC ran a competition for small research grants supported by BEIS in Spring 2016 focusing on the first wave of the LSBS and five projects were supported. Reports from these projects either have been or will be published by ERC as research papers. 2. The UK Innovation Survey (UKIS) User Group held its first meeting on July 7th 2016 at BEIS. Initial results from the UKIS 2015 were presented alongside some academic research. A further meeting will take place on March 21st also at BEIS which will be a further opportunity to share research and policy papers based on the UKIS. ERC held a Brexit Summit meeting with the British Business Bank at The Shard in September 2016, focusing on the theme of 'Sustaining & Developing SME Growth in a Period of Uncertainty'. The event was attended by over 20 senior policy makers. A second ERC-HMRC workshop to discuss how ERC might provide analysis and insights on SME growth was held at The Shard in November 2016, which also involved representatives from BEIS and DIT. The ERC hosted and took part in the Cities and Local Growth Policy Teams' Away Day, which was held at The Shard on Thursday 12th January. Stephen Roper and Mark Hart presented ERC research on innovation and SME growth, and took part in stimulating discussion with the policy teams on the themes of the Government's new Industrial Strategy and place. The Cities and local Growth Unit have indicated they would like a further workshop to discuss ERC insights on the Industrial Strategy. 2017-18 Engagement activity has been intensive over this period with preparations for the ERC conference, and on-going discussions with BEIS around Growth Hubs and Business Support. ERC worked with the 'What Works Centre' on a joint position paper on the provision of business support. In October, ERC also participated in round-table events with ESRC and Innovate UK around potential policies around innovation diffusion and is ran a session at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. In September/October we also contributed to the EU Concordia workshop on innovation policy, presenting our analysis of the effectiveness of innovation policy to the Cotec think-tank in Madrid, and participating in an OECD expert mission to advise the Austrian government on future innovation policy. Two significant research papers were published over this period relating to business growth and survival during the recession and the business growth impact of participation in Research Council and Innovate UK funded projects. The latter attracted significant media coverage around the time of the ERC conference, including a news story on the GOV.UK website which contained a quote from Minister Jo Johnson. See: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-jobs-and-billions-to-uk-economy-from-innovation-grants. ERC Annual Conference • As noted above, our Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference was held on 7th September 2017 at The Shard. On the day the event attracted over 100 delegates to discuss the question of what needs to be done to support growth through innovation in UK SMEs. The conference was chaired by the ERC's Lucy Armstrong, and welcomed a number of high profile external speakers, including Kevin Baughan, Deputy Chief Executive of Innovate UK; Tim Dafforn, Chief Entrepreneurial Adviser, BEIS, and the entrepreneur and founder of Coffee Republic, Sahar Hashemi OBE. The presentations and discussions captured the perspectives of policy makers, researchers and businesses. There was excellent engagement from the audience, leading to high quality questioning and debate. New ERC research on the impact of research council grants on the performance of UK firms was published on the day and presented for the first time at the conference. This research shows that grants do have a positive impact on growth in terms of turnover and employment. However, the findings also raise the question of whether innovation policy could be more effective if there was more targeted support for firms with lower levels of productivity. This provoked much discussion at the conference, and led Kevin Baughan of Innovate UK to comment: "The ERC's research is really useful and will stimulate a great amount of discussion and policy thinking within Innovate UK". The event generated quality media coverage (BBC and The Times), significant attention by key stakeholders and influencers on social media, and a 92% increase in visitors to the ERC's website. Other Engagement Activities during 2017-8 • Over the summer discussions were held with representatives from the Productivity Leadership Group in relation to the newly launched 'Be the Business' productivity movement led by Sir Charlie Mayfield. The ERC has started to advise the group about their evaluation needs, and on a new survey on productivity amongst SMEs in the manufacturing sector. • In September we held the first in a new set of monthly meetings with the BEIS Business and Local Growth team, to share ERC expertise and insights, and help shape the team's future research strategy. • On 3rd October the ERC held its first ever event at a political party conference, hosting a roundtable event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester entitled: 'How can we drive better innovation and productivity in UK small businesses'? 11th July 2017 - ERC held a further meeting with the Growth Group at HMRC along with representatives of BEIS and DIT 26th July 2017 - ERC hosted a workshop jointly with ISBE on policy choices between supporting start-ups and growth businesses. Stephen Roper presented some recent ERC research on high growth episodes. 6th Sept 2017 - Stephen Roper and Mark Hart participated in a workshop at BEIS on business support evidence and priorities hosted by Andrew Patterson and involving the What Works Centre, NESTA and policy advisors from No. 10. 12th Sept 2017 - Stephen Roper was part of a panel on university-business collaboration at a workshop funded by the British Council (London). 14th September - Stephen Roper and Mark Hart met with RBS to discuss new research on MSBs and GEM. 26-27 Sept - Stephen Roper presented results from an ERC Research Paper on policy effectiveness in the UK and Spain at Concordi in Seville. 31st July 2017 - Mark Hart met with Sahar Hashemi (Co-Chair of Scale-up taskforce) to discuss business support options and to brief her on ERC research. 1st August 2017 - Mark Hart met with NESTA to discuss collaborations on firm-level research and business support. 30th August 2017 - Mark Hart had discussions with the FT about their forthcoming Special Report on small business and entrepreneurship in the UK - use of ERC data and insights. 6th Sept 2017 - Mark Hart and Stephen Roper participated in a workshop at BEIS on business support evidence and priorities hosted by Andrew Patterson and involving the What Works Centre, NESTA and policy advisors from No. 10. 14th September - Mark Hart and Stephen Roper met with RBS to discuss new research projects on MSBs and GEM. 21st September - Mark Hart published a blog entitled "It's time Britain's Brexit negotiators 'educated' themselves on the needs of small business". 26th September - Mark Hart met with ACCA Global to discuss potential joint research on high growth firms. 18th September - Vicki Belt met with the communications team at the British Chambers of Commerce to discuss potential areas for joint working in the future. 20th September - Vicki Belt met with staff from Investors in People to talk about their research and data strategy. 28th - September - Vicki Belt reignited a discussion with Universities UK about a potential joint ERC-UUK policy seminar to be held at Warwick University. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | HS2 Economic Advisory Panel |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Smart Specialisation and Science Innovation Audit Expert Group |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Evaluation of Scottish Account Management (Scottish Enterprise/Scottish Government, Jan-18, Feb-19) |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Scottish Enterprise |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 02/2019 |
| Description | How to improve Productivity in the Manufacturing Supply Chain - Diffusing Excellence across the UK Casting and Metal-forming Sectors |
| Amount | £331,641 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/S001786/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 01/2021 |
| Description | Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund |
| Amount | £500,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Department | Business Engagement and Innovation Services |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Title | Micro-business Britain |
| Description | Micro-businesses (with less than 10 employees) form the bulk of the UK business population but are excluded from key official survey such as the UK Innovation Survey. This project involves the largest survey ever undertaken of micro-businesses in the UK (around 6,000) with companion surveys in Ireland (1,500 firms) and the USA (2,000) firms. Survey data focuses on issues around innovation, adoption, resilience, ambition, supply chain participation and investment plans. Detailed data is collected both for the firm and the business leader to reflect the home-business dimension. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | None |
| Description | Building resilient businesses among disadvantaged groups |
| Organisation | Aston University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This project focuses on personal and business resilience among business founders from disadvantaged groups. ERC is the lead partner in this project working with research partners in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The study will comprise an initial literature review, fieldwork in London (late 2018) and survey fieldwork in four other European cities (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Key outcomes from the project will be research reports and toolkits to enable business facing organisations to support the development of resilient businesses. Dr Maria Wishart is the research fellow working on this project. This project is proceeding as per the planned timeline with the literature review well underway. This is focussing on two key strands of literature - resilience at individual and organisational levels and the contribution of disadvantaged groups to entrepreneurship across Europe. Both will be completed by end-May and launched in early-July. A UK Advisory Group for the project has been established and held its first meeting and Advisory Groups are being established in partner countries. |
| Impact | Two initial literature review were published on July 2018. Initial key findings report was published on December 2018. European fieldwork is currently underway and initial results are due in July-August 2019. Development of related tool-kits is currently underway and will be finalised by December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Building resilient businesses among disadvantaged groups |
| Organisation | IE University |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This project focuses on personal and business resilience among business founders from disadvantaged groups. ERC is the lead partner in this project working with research partners in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The study will comprise an initial literature review, fieldwork in London (late 2018) and survey fieldwork in four other European cities (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Key outcomes from the project will be research reports and toolkits to enable business facing organisations to support the development of resilient businesses. Dr Maria Wishart is the research fellow working on this project. This project is proceeding as per the planned timeline with the literature review well underway. This is focussing on two key strands of literature - resilience at individual and organisational levels and the contribution of disadvantaged groups to entrepreneurship across Europe. Both will be completed by end-May and launched in early-July. A UK Advisory Group for the project has been established and held its first meeting and Advisory Groups are being established in partner countries. |
| Impact | Two initial literature review were published on July 2018. Initial key findings report was published on December 2018. European fieldwork is currently underway and initial results are due in July-August 2019. Development of related tool-kits is currently underway and will be finalised by December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Building resilient businesses among disadvantaged groups |
| Organisation | Institute for SME Research Bonn |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | This project focuses on personal and business resilience among business founders from disadvantaged groups. ERC is the lead partner in this project working with research partners in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The study will comprise an initial literature review, fieldwork in London (late 2018) and survey fieldwork in four other European cities (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Key outcomes from the project will be research reports and toolkits to enable business facing organisations to support the development of resilient businesses. Dr Maria Wishart is the research fellow working on this project. This project is proceeding as per the planned timeline with the literature review well underway. This is focussing on two key strands of literature - resilience at individual and organisational levels and the contribution of disadvantaged groups to entrepreneurship across Europe. Both will be completed by end-May and launched in early-July. A UK Advisory Group for the project has been established and held its first meeting and Advisory Groups are being established in partner countries. |
| Impact | Two initial literature review were published on July 2018. Initial key findings report was published on December 2018. European fieldwork is currently underway and initial results are due in July-August 2019. Development of related tool-kits is currently underway and will be finalised by December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Building resilient businesses among disadvantaged groups |
| Organisation | University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This project focuses on personal and business resilience among business founders from disadvantaged groups. ERC is the lead partner in this project working with research partners in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The study will comprise an initial literature review, fieldwork in London (late 2018) and survey fieldwork in four other European cities (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Key outcomes from the project will be research reports and toolkits to enable business facing organisations to support the development of resilient businesses. Dr Maria Wishart is the research fellow working on this project. This project is proceeding as per the planned timeline with the literature review well underway. This is focussing on two key strands of literature - resilience at individual and organisational levels and the contribution of disadvantaged groups to entrepreneurship across Europe. Both will be completed by end-May and launched in early-July. A UK Advisory Group for the project has been established and held its first meeting and Advisory Groups are being established in partner countries. |
| Impact | Two initial literature review were published on July 2018. Initial key findings report was published on December 2018. European fieldwork is currently underway and initial results are due in July-August 2019. Development of related tool-kits is currently underway and will be finalised by December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Building resilient businesses among disadvantaged groups |
| Organisation | University of Padova |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This project focuses on personal and business resilience among business founders from disadvantaged groups. ERC is the lead partner in this project working with research partners in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The study will comprise an initial literature review, fieldwork in London (late 2018) and survey fieldwork in four other European cities (Milan, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Key outcomes from the project will be research reports and toolkits to enable business facing organisations to support the development of resilient businesses. Dr Maria Wishart is the research fellow working on this project. This project is proceeding as per the planned timeline with the literature review well underway. This is focussing on two key strands of literature - resilience at individual and organisational levels and the contribution of disadvantaged groups to entrepreneurship across Europe. Both will be completed by end-May and launched in early-July. A UK Advisory Group for the project has been established and held its first meeting and Advisory Groups are being established in partner countries. |
| Impact | Two initial literature review were published on July 2018. Initial key findings report was published on December 2018. European fieldwork is currently underway and initial results are due in July-August 2019. Development of related tool-kits is currently underway and will be finalised by December 2019. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | 'Be the Business' productivity movement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Over the summer discussions were held with representatives from the Productivity Leadership Group in relation to the newly launched 'Be the Business' productivity movement led by Sir Charlie Mayfield. The ERC has started to advise the group about their evaluation needs, and on a new survey on productivity amongst SMEs in the manufacturing sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | A workshop on distributional aspects of innovation and the impact of incubators and accelerators |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • A workshop on distributional aspects of innovation and the impact of incubators and accelerators was held at BEIS on 14th March to which Stephen contributed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | our Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference was held on 30th November. We co-hosted the event this year with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme at The Shard. The event was Chaired by Lucy Armstrong, and was attended by over 100 delegates. We launched the UK Local Growth Dashboard 2016 at the event, which generated a good amount of media attention, resulting in 55 pieces of media coverage, and Mark Hart appearing live on BBC News. The press coverage was all positive. The main focus of the media messaging was the need to appreciate and understand the range of different types and patterns of firm growth in the UK, and to position the ERC as experts in SME data. The conference consisted of a mix of presentations and lively panel discussions. High profile external speakers included Liam Byrne MP, Chair of the All Party Group on Inclusive Growth, Cliff Prior, CEO of Big Society Capital, and Phil Smith, chairman of Cisco UK and Ireland. The panel discussions represented perspectives from the worlds of local and national policy, as well as small business owners themselves. There was excellent engagement from the audience, leading to high quality questions and discussion. Delegate feedback was overwhelmingly positive, particularly in terms of speaker quality and overall conference organisation, and there are many positive lessons that we will take forward to the 2017 conference. A conference evaluation report is included in the meeting papers for further information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | our Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference was held on 7th September at The Shard. Preparation for the conference unsurprisingly dominated ERC engagement activity over the July/August period. On the day the event attracted over 100 delegates to discuss the question of what needs to be done to support growth through innovation in UK SMEs. The conference was chaired by the ERC's Lucy Armstrong, and welcomed a number of high profile external speakers, including Kevin Baughan, Deputy Chief Executive of Innovate UK; Tim Dafforn, Chief Entrepreneurial Adviser, BEIS, and the entrepreneur and founder of Coffee Republic, Sahar Hashemi OBE. The presentations and discussions captured the perspectives of policy makers, researchers and businesses. There was excellent engagement from the audience, leading to high quality questioning and debate. New ERC research on the impact of research council grants on the performance of UK firms was published on the day and presented for the first time at the conference. This research shows that grants do have a positive impact on growth in terms of turnover and employment. However, the findings also raise the question of whether innovation policy could be more effective if there was more targeted support for firms with lower levels of productivity. This provoked much discussion at the conference, and led Kevin Baughan of Innovate UK to comment: "The ERC's research is really useful and will stimulate a great amount of discussion and policy thinking within Innovate UK". Overall, the conference had four main aims: • To cement the position of the ERC as a source of robust data and evidence on SME growth and provider of valuable insights on the economic development landscape; • To gather together a range of key influencers from the business, policy and practitioner communities and generate stimulating discussion and debate; • To share new ERC research insights on the themes of innovation and business growth; • To demonstrate the position of the ERC as sitting at the centre of policy debates on SME growth, and its close connections with the policy and business communities. All of these aims were successfully met. Delegate feedback received both on the day, and via the post-event feedback questionnaire, was overwhelmingly positive, particularly in terms of the effectiveness of the sessions, conference chairing, mix of speakers and overall conference organisation. Over 90% of delegates responding to the questionnaire rated the event as either 'very effective' or 'effective' (one of the ERC's main KPIs). The event generated quality media coverage (BBC and The Times), significant attention by key stakeholders and influencers on social media, and a 92% increase in visitors to the ERC's website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Department for Education's (DFE) Skills and Vocational Education Policy Team Away Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • The ERC hosted and took part in the Department for Education's (DFE) Skills and Vocational Education Policy Team Away Day, which was held at The Shard. Stephen Roper presented an overview of the ERC and opened the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC - BEIS Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • The ERC delivered a seminar on 13th March at BEIS focusing on how the latest research from the ERC might inform the proposals set out in the Industrial Strategy and help shape the post-Brexit economy. Three presentations covered the following themes: "How can we ensure Inclusive Innovation?" (Professor Stephen Roper); "High Performing Firms and Local Growth - What's the Deal?" (Professor Mark Hart); "The Future for Inward Investment in the UK" (Professor Nigel Driffield). The event was very well attended, with a packed room of BEIS colleagues from different teams, including the Innovation and Business Growth Directorates, all of whom are leading on various aspects of the Industrial Strategy and the Patient Capital Review. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC Research Paper Presentation at the UK Innovation Survey user group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • ERC papers were presented at the UK Innovation Survey user group meeting at BEIS on 20th March 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC Research Policy Briefing in the UK and Spain at Concordi in Seville |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 26-27 Sept - Stephen Roper presented results from an ERC Research Paper on policy effectiveness in the UK and Spain at Concordi in Seville. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC Research Presentation - Growth Heroes and the wider economy, entitled "Fast-growth firms and the wider economic impact in the UK" at the Regional Studies Association Annual conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Jun Du presented a paper based on ERC project 3 - Growth Heroes and the wider economy, entitled "Fast-growth firms and the wider economic impact in the UK" at the Regional Studies Association Annual conference, on 5 June 2017, Dublin. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC Research Presentations at the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference in Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • ERC was well represented with research papers at the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship conference in Paris, where we organised a conference theme on business growth and helped lead workshops on ISBE's policy links and the Longitudinal Small Business Survey. Much of the discussion in the plenary sessions was about Brexit. The stand-out statistic was the 80,000 pages of treaty documentation which reportedly needs to be renegotiated. Congratulations to ERC colleagues Best Paper winners. o Social, Environmental and Ethical Enterprise Winner. ? Inconvenient Truth: Do UK Owner-Managers value Social and Environmental Goals? ? Jonathan Levie | Mark Hart o Family and Community Business Winner ? Keeping it in the Family: Paradoxes of Leadership in Family Firm Strategy and Survival ? Jane Glover | Kiran Trehan o With highly commended awarded to ? Business Support, Policy and Practice ? Getting transformational advice ? Kevin Mole | David North | Robyn Owens o Entrepreneurship in Minority Groups ? Migrant Entrepreneurship: Reflections on Research and Practice ? Monder Ram | Trevor Jones | Maria Villares-Varela |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | ERC Research Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • The ERC Research Showcase event took place on June 20th at RSA House in London. The aim of this event was to share our research insights and ideas with our key stakeholders, and to engage in dialogue with them about both closing and new projects. During the morning session we presented findings from our closing research projects: Productivity and internationalisation in SMEs; Finance barriers to growth and productivity; An exploratory study linking SME data to the science base; An Integrated treatment of firm age, firm growth and job creation. In the afternoon session we launched four new projects, with stakeholders feeding their ideas to help us shape future research questions and approaches. The event attracted a quality audience of key stakeholders, including all of the ERC funders. Many valuable questions were raised, and the discussion will inform the presentation of findings as well as the focus of the new projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC Research Showcase |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • The ERC held a project workshop on 13th December, again at The Shard. The day was split into two sessions with the morning dedicated to discussions on findings from projects we have coming to a close in our current core research programme, and in the afternoon inception presentations for the new projects starting in early 2017. The event was attended by over 40 stakeholders, and generated interesting discussion and useful feedback to help inform the research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | ERC research Presentation on export persistence in SMEs at the Academy of International Business (UK and Ireland) annual conference at the University of Reading |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Jim Love presented recent ERC research on export persistence in SMEs at the Academy of International Business (UK and Ireland) annual conference at the University of Reading. The paper, entitled "Persistence in exporting: cumulative and punctuated learning effects " (ERC Research Paper No 50), shows how an SMEs total previous exporting experience can help lengthen subsequent exporting spells, but that this can be compromised by the punctuated learning arising from a pattern of sporadic exporting.SMEs |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC research presentation at a British Council |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen presented ERC research at a British Council funded event in Izmir, Turkey to an audience of academics and government planning staff (17th March). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC-HMRC workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • A second ERC-HMRC workshop to discuss how ERC might provide analysis and insights on SME growth was held at The Shard in November 2016, which also involved representatives from BEIS and DIT. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | ERC-HMRC workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Further ERC-HMRC workshops focussing on developing test and learn activities and reporting back on ERC research on trade and SME growth were held in March and early July. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Entrepreneurship Review Working Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen has been involved with Prof Tim Dafforn's Entrepreneurship Review Working Group which has met regularly over the last few months. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Expert Steering Group meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Vicki Belt and Stephen Roper both took part in Expert Steering Group meetings in January for a new research programme funded by the Design Council, taking forward last year's Design Economy research. The programme will explore what drives innovation and productivity in this sector, as well as exploring the supply of, and demand for, design skills in the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | IS consultation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen was involved in discussions with BEIS representatives and others in a round table held at Warwick as part of the IS consultation (10th March). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Interim stakeholder meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Interim stakeholder meetings were held for Projects 1 and 3 on September 15th at The Shard, with invited Advisory panel members and ERC researchers discussing the projects to date and future recommendations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Meeting with RBS to discuss new research on MSBs and GEM. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 14th September - Stephen Roper and Mark Hart met with RBS to discuss new research on MSBs and GEM. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Meeting with with NESTA to discuss collaborations on firm-level research and business support. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 1st August 2017 - Mark Hart met with NESTA to discuss collaborations on firm-level research and business support. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Participation in a ResPublica roundtable on the Industrial Strategy Green Paper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart participated in a ResPublica roundtable on the Industrial Strategy Green Paper on 6th February. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation at Regional Studies Association winter 2016 conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • ERC's Enrico Vanino attended the Regional Studies Association winter 2016 conference presenting some results from the ERC project on the spillover effects of Growth Heroes on the wider UK economy. In particular, he focused on exposing the economic impact of fast growing firms in regions and industrial sectors, highlighting the externalities of the high growth phenomenon on the productivity and employment growth of surrounding firms. The 2016 Winter Conference of the Regional Studies Association presented a timely opportunity to discuss these issues, to identify the new research objectives, and to consider the challenges facing policymakers and practitioners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation at a seminar run by the Institute for Public Policy for Wales at the University of Cardiff |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • In November 2016 Stephen Roper contributed to a seminar run by the Institute for Public Policy for Wales at the University of Cardiff. The event focussed on policy initiatives which could be taken to stimulate productivity growth. Following the event, a blog- Knowledge diffusion, innovation and productivity - changing the game in Wales was posted on the ERC website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation at the DRUID innovation conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • ERC research on externalities from innovation was presented at the DRUID innovation conference in New York, June 13th 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation at the Women and Enterprise Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Karen Bonner provided an update on recent trends and research at the Pink Shoe Club in an insightful and inspiring afternoon event at the Shard on 26 October 2016 focussed on women's enterprise. Discussion focussed on the opportunities for growth and policy and advocacy initiatives which could be taken to promote women's enterprise. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation att a WEConnect International Network Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen Roper talked at a WEConnect International Network Event on Monday 19th September. His presentation drew on work with Karen Bonner and focused on gendered differences in ambition among early stage and established entrepreneurs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation in a BIS/DCLG LEP Network Data Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen Roper, Vicki Belt and Karen Bonner participated in a BIS/DCLG LEP Network Data Workshop on Monday 26th September. Stephen Roper gave a presentation on four key data sources that are well used by the ERC and of great potential to LEPs |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation in a discussion event on 'The living standards challenge facing the West Midlands' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • In December Vicki Belt took part in a discussion event on 'The living standards challenge facing the West Midlands' hosted by the Resolution Foundation in Birmingham. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation of some of the most recent results from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor at West Midlands Venturefest |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Karen Bonner and Stephen Roper presented some of the most recent results from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor at West Midlands Venturefest on 23rd June. Levels of entrepreneurial activity in the UK remain high relative to the pre-2008 period with a notable increase in start-up activity among older individuals. Levels of opportunity based start-up activity among migrants are significantly higher than those of long-term UK residents. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation of the findings at the 14th Annual International Industrial Organization Conference in Boston |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ERC staff also presented the findings at the 14th Annual International Industrial Organization Conference in Boston. These are among the most prestigious international conferences gathering thousands of researchers from around the world, in particular for topics related to economic geography, urban economics, knowledge externalities, industrial organization, local innovation and industrial policies. The presentations focused on the implications of an increase in the incidence of fast-growth firms for the employment and productivity growth of non-fast-growth companies operating in the same region and industry, highlighting the different learning and competition effects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation of the main results of ERC project 3 - Growth Heroes and the wider economy at the American Association of Geographers 2017 Annual Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Jun and Enrico presented the main results of ERC project 3 - Growth Heroes and the wider economy at the American Association of Geographers 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation of the outcome of ERC Project 1 - SME- University links and their innovation and productivity benefits, at University College Cork |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Dr Areti Gkypali presented the outcome of ERC Project 1 - SME- University links and their innovation and productivity benefits, at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. The presentation focused on the moderating role of geography in driving business engagement with Universities as innovation partners. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation on Innovation and Productivity to the 'Future of the Welsh Economy: Competitiveness, Governance Structures and the Role of Political Leadership' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen Roper talked on Innovation and Productivity to the 'Future of the Welsh Economy: Competitiveness, Governance Structures and the Role of Political Leadership' in Cardiff on the 6th of October. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Presentation to a group of stakeholders in the Tees Valley on the subject of 'Scaling Business Growth' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark presented to a group of stakeholders in the Tees Valley on the subject of 'Scaling Business Growth' in February. The event was hosted by Professor Jane Turner (PVC for Enterprise & Business Engagement) of the University of Teesside. Mark shared his thoughts on the Scale-up agenda and discussed a series of actions designed to build a growth pipeline of businesses. ERC will be working with Jane's team at the University of Teesside in the next few months to capture good practice to form a case study of successful local university-business engagement and impact. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation to the Disruptive Businesses unit of BEIS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • On 23rd January, Jun Du and Enrico Vanino presented the outcome of Project 3 to the Disruptive Businesses unit of BEIS. The presentation focused the analysis of the economic impact of high-growth firms on the employment and productivity growth of non-fast-growing firms in their regions and industrial sectors. After the presentation the participants had some time to talk about the work and analysis carried on by the disruptive business unit, discussing possible synergies and cooperation opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Stakeholders Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Vicki has held a range of productive meetings with current and potential future stakeholders during this period, keeping them up to date with ERC research and gaining a deeper understanding of research and policy priorities. This includes meetings with BEIS, The British Business Bank, Innovate UK, the UK Productivity Council, the National Centre for Universities and Business, Scottish Enterprise and Investors in People. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| Description | Stakeholders' meetings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Vicki has started useful dialogue with a number of individuals and organisations over the last few months, with an eye on widening the impact of the ERC. Highlights have included discussions with Universities UK about a potential joint seminar to take place later this year, and developing ideas with the British Chambers of Commerce about potential joint working on roundtables at the Conservative and Labour Party Conferences in the Autumn. Vicki has also met with the Alliance for Useful Evidence at Nesta, who have a remit to champion the use of evidence in policy making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Talk at APPG on Women and Enterprise |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart attended the APPG on Women and Enterprise on 30th January at the Houses of Parliament and contributed to the discussion on data and evidence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Workshop on university-business collaboration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 12th Sept 2017 - Stephen Roper was part of a panel on university-business collaboration at a workshop funded by the British Council (London). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | a 'pilot' project with the LEP Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | • Mark has been leading a 'pilot' project with the LEP Network and 8 individual LEPs including North East LEP, Thames Valley Berkshire, Cumbria, Greater Lincolnshire, Liverpool City Region, Greater Cambridge and Peterborough and Leeds City Region. The project aims to demonstrate the value of a central resource to provide the LEP Network and individual LEPs with better enterprise data access and evaluation support. Following discussions with BEIS [Gavin Dollin (Digital) and Karen Leigh (Cities and Local Growth)] this has now been expanded to include analysis of the 39 Growth Hub CRMs and will report in September 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | a Brexit Summit meeting with the British Business Bank |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • ERC held a Brexit Summit meeting with the British Business Bank at The Shard in September, focusing on the theme of 'Sustaining & Developing SME Growth in a Period of Uncertainty'. The event was attended by over 20 senior policy makers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | a Fellow of the British Academy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ? Mike Wright has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy in recognition of his research on entrepreneurial ownership mobility and finance. Mike joins only a handful of Fellows of the British Academy in the business and management field. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a blog for the ESRC entitled 'Preparing for Brexit at the local level', |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart was invited to write a blog for the ESRC entitled 'Preparing for Brexit at the local level', and was published on 27th January 2017. This was based on the ERC's UK Local Growth Dashboard released at the Annual Conference on 30th November. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a discussion on SMEs and Brexit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark joint hosted a discussion on SMEs and Brexit in partnership with the Industry Parliament Trust (IPT) at a diner in the House of Commons on 10th July. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | a guest speaker at the University of Navarra |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Kevin Mole was a guest speaker at the University of Navarra speaking on 'New small firm growth: understanding the phenomenon and exploring policies that may support it'. The event held on December 16th aimed to offer an overview of entrepreneurship in Europe in general, analyse whether/how entrepreneurial activity may contribute to industrial dynamism, economic development and growth whilst understanding the phenomenon of new firm growth and its impact on economic development as well as exploring policies that may support it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a judge for this year's UK Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Vicki Belt was a judge for this year's UK Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, taking part in the judge's panel held on 10th January. The awards are in their fourth year, and are sponsored by the Citi Foundation and Responsible Finance. They celebrate the economic and social impact of responsible finance providers, and champion outstanding microentrepreneurs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | a member of the BIS Strategic Advisory Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Steve Roper is a member of the BIS Strategic Advisory Group on Smart Specialisation and Science Innovation Audits; |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a member of the Delivering Value Taskforce |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Steve Roper has been a member of the Delivering Value Taskforce being run by the Association of Business Schools to investigate how business schools can maximise regional value added. This project is now in its final stages and publication is due in September 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a member of the Steering Group for the Longitudinal Small Business Survey |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen Roper is a member of the Steering Group for the Longitudinal Small Business Survey; |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | a workshop jointly with ISBE on policy choices |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 26th July 2017 - ERC hosted a workshop jointly with ISBE on policy choices between supporting start-ups and growth businesses. Stephen Roper presented some recent ERC research on high growth episodes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | act as a peer reviewer for the central evaluation team of BEIS. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart continues to act as a peer reviewer for the central evaluation team of BEIS. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | active member of the Growing Businesses Board of the GBS LEP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | • Mark continues to be an active member of the Growing Businesses Board of the GBS LEP and this provides a useful platform for ERC research to inform the strategic thinking of the LEP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | address the Digital Leaders Group of the LEPs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark was invited to address the Digital Leaders Group of the LEPs on 11th May at Bucks LEP on the work of the ERC and to discuss data and evidence issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | advice to the Columbian government's innovation policy unit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Steve Roperprovided advice to the Columbian government's innovation policy unit as part of a project organised by the World Bank |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | an ISBE trustee to join the taskforce behind the latest Chartered ABS report on how business schools deliver value to local and regional economies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Business schools supporting entrepreneurship and small businesses across the UK- Stephen Roper was invited as an ISBE trustee to join the taskforce behind the latest Chartered ABS report on how business schools deliver value to local and regional economies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | bespoke analysis for the HMT Patient Capital Review team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark has been undertaking bespoke analysis for the HMT Patient Capital Review team and, in particular, undertook a data-linking exercise with the ONS and Beauhurst data to understand the links between equity growth finance and firm performance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | co-authors in a joint GEM-WEF report on 'Europe's Hidden Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial Employee Activity and Competitiveness in Europe' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart and Jonathan Levie were co-authors in a joint GEM-WEF report on 'Europe's Hidden Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial Employee Activity and Competitiveness in Europe' published on 22nd December 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | contribution as an Expert panel member on the Barclays Entrepreneurs Index Report Volume 8. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart contributed as an Expert panel member on the Barclays Entrepreneurs Index Report Volume 8. The Barclays Entrepreneurs Index is a barometer of the entrepreneurial environment and activity in the UK. It uses a set of data indicators to track the UK's performance at each stage of the entrepreneurial lifecycle - starting, growing and exiting a business - on an annual basis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | contribution of analysis and commentary to a FT Special Feature |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart and Karen Bonner contributed analysis and commentary to a FT Special Feature written by Jonathan Moules, and published on 4th October entitled 'Wanted: more ventures fit for the fast track - High-growth companies create jobs and wealth. How can we encourage more of them?' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | contribution to a special feature of the ESRC 'Society Now' magazine on Brexit with an article entitled: 'An Entrepreneurial Perspective: What will be the effect of Brexit on small-to-medium sized UK businesses?' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart contributed to a special feature of the ESRC 'Society Now' magazine on Brexit with an article entitled: 'An Entrepreneurial Perspective: What will be the effect of Brexit on small-to-medium sized UK businesses?' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | contribution to an article on Serial Entrepreneurs published by the Guardian Small Business Network online 'A great black book': how to exploit contacts for global success,' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart contributed to an article on Serial Entrepreneurs published by the Guardian Small Business Network online 'A great black book': how to exploit contacts for global success,' published on 23rd December 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | discussions with the FT about their forthcoming Special Report on small business and entrepreneurship in the UK - use of ERC data and insights |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | 30th August 2017 - Mark Hart had discussions with the FT about their forthcoming Special Report on small business and entrepreneurship in the UK - use of ERC data and insights. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | event on the LSBS Wave 2 pre-publication results |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • ERC and BEIS jointly organised and hosted an event on the LSBS Wave 2 pre-publication results at the Shard on the 19th June. Around 100 participants attended on the day, with a good mix of key ERC stakeholders present. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | evidence presentation on the first 5 years of 10,000 Small Businesses UK at on 'Why Small Businesses Matter: Amplifying and Scaling Small Businesses' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart presented evidence on the first 5 years of 10,000 Small Businesses UK at on 'Why Small Businesses Matter: Amplifying and Scaling Small Businesses' in central Birmingham on Wednesday 5th October. The event was hosted by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK (GS10KSB), together with the ScaleUp Institute and Aston Centre for Growth. The economic impact report was published on 14th November and he contributed to an article in the FT on the report. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | keynote speaker at the Chief Economic Development Officers' Society (CEDOS) meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Mark was a keynote speaker at the Chief Economic Development Officers' Society (CEDOS) meeting in London on 19th May - he was invited to talk on "Perspectives on High Growth, Scale-Ups and Innovation" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | keynote speech at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | ? Mike Wright delivered the keynote speech at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference organised by the Glendonbrook Institute of Enterprise Development, Loughborough University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | lead speaker at a House of Commons breakfast event on US exporting organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Trust |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Go West - Export opportunities for UK firms in the US: Building on ERC research on exporting, Stephen Roper was the lead speaker at a House of Commons breakfast event on US exporting organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Trust. The discussion focussed on US market opportunities and some of the barriers faced by smaller firms in the US. Export support agencies were encouraged to provide more support for SMEs in 'friendly' markets such as the US. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | meeting with CLG and the CEO of the LEP Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart met with CLG and the CEO of the LEP Network on 19th January to discuss ERC support to develop the evidence base around SMEs and growth. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | meeting with the Growth Group at HMRC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 11th July 2017 - ERC held a further meeting with the Growth Group at HMRC along with representatives of BEIS and DIT |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | meeting with the Open Innovation Unit at the Cabinet Office |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Vicki and Stephen Roper met with the Open Innovation Unit at the Cabinet Office on 4th April. The Open Innovation Unit is focused on generating and developing better partnerships between government and external experts. We discussed the key areas in which ERC has expertise and interest, and identified potential ways to work together in future. Key themes of interest for the Unit which resonate with the ERC are self-employment/innovation aspects of the future of work, and the economic impact of universities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | meeting with the communications team at the British Chambers of Commerce to discuss potential areas for joint working in the future. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 18th September - Vicki met with the communications team at the British Chambers of Commerce to discuss potential areas for joint working in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | meetings with NESTA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Mark has held a number of meetings with NESTA to discuss a joint programme of work on firm-level analysis and policy evaluation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | monthly meetings with the BEIS Business and Local Growth team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • In September we held the first in a new set of monthly meetings with the BEIS Business and Local Growth team, to share ERC expertise and insights, and help shape the team's future research strategy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | panel discussion on achieving impact at the ABS Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Stephen contributed to a panel discussion on achieving impact at the ABS Conference in Birmingham University (19th March 2017). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | presentation at BEIS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • 'Innovation and place' was the focus of an invited presentation at BEIS on 7th of June 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | presentation at an event in Beer Sheeva, Israel on innovation centres |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • ERC research on market failures was an invited presentation at an event in Beer Sheeva, Israel on innovation centres (28th April 2017). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | presentation of a chapter from his PhD thesis: "Outsourced R&D and export performance: resource optimization or market-seeking?" at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Enrico Vanino presented a chapter from his PhD thesis: "Outsourced R&D and export performance: resource optimization or market-seeking?" at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference organised by the Glendonbrook Institute of Enterprise Development, Loughborough University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | presention the ERC research paper 38-Firm's innovation objectives and knowledge acquisition strategies: a comparative analysis respectively at Keele University Management School, at the DRUID conference in Copenhagen and at the Academy of Management Annual meeting in Anaheim. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | • Bettina Becker presented the ERC research paper 38-Firm's innovation objectives and knowledge acquisition strategies: a comparative analysis respectively at Keele University Management School, at the DRUID conference in Copenhagen and at the Academy of Management Annual meeting in Anaheim. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | roundtable event at the Conservative Party Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • On 3rd October the ERC will hold its first ever event at a political party conference, hosting a roundtable event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester entitled: 'How can we drive better innovation and productivity in UK small businesses'? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | stakeholder consultation exercise |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • Throughout March and early April, as noted above, the ERC undertook a major stakeholder consultation exercise. This involved meetings/conversations with 72 stakeholders from 47 separate organisations and bodies including BEIS, InnovateUK, the British Business Bank, devolved administrations and LEPs. This gave us an excellent opportunity to discuss research and policy priorities with these individuals and organisations, and we have used the insights to develop new relationships and potential future research plans. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | strategy sessions with New Anglia LEP and Tees Valley LEP |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | • Mark Hart has had detailed strategy sessions with New Anglia LEP and Tees Valley LEP following the launch of the UK Local Growth Dashboard in November 2016. These will continue throughout 2017, and will be written up as case studies and published by the ERC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | the Board of Trustees of the Social Research Association (SRA) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | • In January Vicki Belt was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Social Research Association (SRA), a professional membership organisation which aims to promote high quality standards in social research. Vicki was appointed to provide expertise on improving the links between policy and social research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | the Cities and Local Growth Policy Teams' Away Day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | • The ERC hosted and took part in the Cities and Local Growth Policy Teams' Away Day, which was held at The Shard on Thursday 12th January. Stephen Roper and Mark Hart presented ERC research on innovation and SME growth, and took part in stimulating discussion with the policy teams on the themes of the Government's new Industrial Strategy and place. The Cities and local Growth Unit have indicated they would like a further workshop to discuss ERC insights on the Industrial Strategy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | working with the Scale-Up taskforce contributing to sub-groups |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | • Mark is working with the Scale-Up taskforce contributing to sub-groups advising on "Use of Data and Evidence" providing the most recent evidence on high performing firms and "Access to Markets" discussing public procurement, supply chains and exports. He presented ERC research at the first meeting of the Taskforce on 21st March chaired by the Minister for Small Business, Margot James MP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | workshop at BEIS on business support evidence and priorities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | 6th Sept 2017 - Stephen Roper and Mark Hart participated in a workshop at BEIS on business support evidence and priorities hosted by Andrew Patterson and involving the What Works Centre, NESTA and policy advisors from No. 10. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |