Entries by Wendy Ferris

Building resilience in under-represented entrepreneurs: A European comparative study

Latest report by the ERC is the result of a two year, five-country study into small business resilience with a particular focus on firms with female and ethnic minority leaders. The overarching aim of the research was to deliver insight into what makes small businesses resilient and thus more able to survive crises. We also… Read more

European firms shun crisis planning ahead of Brexit, study shows

Major new study of 2,975 small businesses across five European cities, supported by J.P. Morgan, finds one-third have experienced a threat to their survival in the past five years. Despite this, crisis planning is not widely undertaken by small businesses, which struggle to identify the most potent sources of business disruption Firms run by women… Read more

Building resilience in under-represented entrepreneurs: A European comparative study

Equipping under-represented SME leaders with the skills and resources to identify and plan for key future risks will not only improve their firms’ resilience – it will also deliver ongoing wider economic benefits. These are some of the takeaways from our latest research report, supported by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation – Building resilience in under-represented… Read more

November & December 2019 Press Coverage

Financial Times Special Report – the UK’s Entrepreneurs Belfast Telegraph Why Investment can begin at home   Financial Times Scale-ups prioritised in productivity drive  Financial Times Tees Valley steels itself for recovery with start-up funds Financial Times UK political parties urged to focus on champions of prosperity                    … Read more

Small business priorities for a new parliament

Newly-elected MPs heading to Westminster, inboxes no doubt groaning with congratulatory messages and policy briefings, have a busy few weeks (and months) ahead. Moving forward with the first stage of getting Brexit done – the EU Withdrawal Bill – will consume much of parliament’s time at the beginning of 2020. But then what? It’s the… Read more

Professor Mike Wright

It was with great sadness that we heard this week about the passing of Professor Mike Wright, Imperial College. Mike was a founder director of the Enterprise Research Centre in 2013 and worked closely with ERC staff until very recently. Mike was a gifted and highly productive researcher and a valued colleague. He will be… Read more

October 2019 Press Coverage

This is Wiltshire Brexit uncertainty blamed as number of new Swindon start-ups plummets Swindon Advertiser Brexit uncertainty blamed as number of new Swindon start-ups plummets  Business News Wales Start-ups Slump as Entrepreneurs Brace for Brexit The Scotsman Deals are being made across Scotland at a healthy rate despite economic uncertainty Express and Star (Wolverhampton)Business Saving… Read more

Britain’s Innovation Challenge: the expansion of employment in higher value-added sectors

Although productivity growth across the developed world has fallen, the data is clear that productivity in the UK is lagging other industrialised countries. One of the challenges with policy development to improve productivity is that there needs to be some consensus as to what the underlying issues are. But for the UK there is currently… Read more

The time has come to sharpen the focus on productivity

Raising productivity is often cited as one of the UK’s most important economic challenges. On the surface of it, improving productivity sounds like a pretty straightforward idea to grasp. It’s about economies, workplaces and people being more efficient, increasing the volume of goods created in relation to the inputs used to produce them. But in… Read more