ERC Research Showcase : SME Business Futures
April 22, 2021 10:00 - April 22, 2021 11:30
Registration is now closed for this event. For any last minute availability please email centremanager@enterpriseresearch.ac.uk
The ERC and Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity will be holding a Research Showcase on Thursday 22nd April, 10 am – 11.30
Come and join us for our research showcase on SME business futures, where we will present new research findings on UK SMEs and their approaches to digitalisation and net zero, and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
The event will be held via Microsoft Teams and places are limited.
Read the full write up from this event below.
Read event write upSpeakers
Stephen Roper
Director - ERC
Stephen Roper is Professor of Enterprise at Warwick Business School, Director of the Enterprise Research Centre – ERC (www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk), and Co-Director of the Innovation and Research Caucus (https://ircaucus.ac.uk). He is an economist with degrees from the University of Durham, Oxford University, and LSE. Stephen joined Warwick in 2008. Prior to that, he was Professor of Business Innovation at Aston Business School, and before that, Assistant Director of the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre, Belfast.
Anastasia Ri
Assistant Professor -Research
Anastasia Ri is an Assistant Professor (Research) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Warwick Business School (WBS), which she joined in December 2025. Prior to this, she was a Research Fellow at the Enterprise Research Centre and The Productivity Institute at Aston Business School, and, before that, a Principal Researcher at the University of Nice–Sophia Antipolis on a European Investment Bank–funded project.
She is an applied economist with extensive experience and a strong interest in policy-oriented research related to SMEs, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Her research focuses particularly on SMEs’ digital adoption and sustainability practices.
Effie Kesidou
Professor of Economics of Innovation & Sustainability
Effie Kesidou has a Chair in Economics of Innovation and Sustainability at Leeds University Business School, is the Head of the Graduate School in the Business Faculty, University of Leeds and a CORD Fellow at the Center for Organization Research & Design, Arizona State University. Her research is interdisciplinary and uses applied economic methods to understand how businesses and cities can become more sustainable via innovation.
Maria Wishart
Research Fellow
Maria Wishart joined the Enterprise Research Centre in 2018 after completing her PhD in Ethics. She worked for seventeen years in SMEs before coming to academia. Since joining the ERC, she has contributed to a multi-country study into SME resilience and to a major longitudinal UK study into mental health in the workplace. Her work has addressed the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on small businesses, and she has led research projects focusing on rural enterprise and on workplace wellbeing. She is experienced at teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students and her research interests include SME resilience, workplace mental health and business ethics.
Jun Du
Professor of Economics
Jun Du holds the position of Professor of Economics at Aston University and serves as the leader of work package 4 within the ERC project "Internationalisation and Productivity." Additionally, Jun is the head of the Centre for Business Prosperity (CBP). Her current research focus revolves around formulating global business strategies encompassing international trade, investment, and technological advancements.
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