Strengthening Sectors – ERC’s 6th State of Small Business conference

Understanding small business dynamics is central to our work at the Enterprise Research Centre and once a year we gather at the Shard in London with 150 researchers, stakeholders, policy makers and small business owners to discuss and debate the state of the small business community. The sixth of these events was held at the… Read more

State of Small Business Britain Report 2019

The State of Small Business Britain report 2019  has been launched at the 6th Annual State of Small Business Britain conference held by the ERC. The increasing levels of political uncertainty in the UK sets the context for this review of trends in the small business community in mid-2019. We seek to provide an overview… Read more

Press Release : State of Small Business Britain Conference 2019

The sixth annual ERC State of Small Business Britain Conference takes place today at The Shard in London. The conference, which this year is being held in partnership with the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), focuses on how we can strengthen key sectors of the UK economy. At the event we will present new comparative research… Read more

Innovation and productivity: How strong is the connection?

Innovation and productivity: How strong is the connection? ‘Innovation’ is a much used (and abused) term employed to describe everything from flea collars for dogs[1] to electric cars. As a result, measuring innovation can be tricky, particularly in service sectors where firms’ relationships to customers are often individual and bespoke. Fortunately, the kind people at… Read more

May 2019 Press Coverage

The Metro.co.uk 01/05/2019 A second great depression is coming and 99.9% likely in two years. Insider.co.uk 13/05/2019 Par Equity backs Northern Irish tech companies BizPlus 13/05/2019 Taking the Pulse of Laid back Businesses The Irish News 14/05/2019 Tech firms enjoy £3.2m investment boost

April 2019 Press Coverage

The Aston Angle 01/04/2019 Does firm-level jobs data show a ‘canary in the mine’ for the UK economy?  Irish times 03/04/2019 Majority of small businesses not interested in scaling  The Independent 03/04/2019 Big ideas: Small Irish businesses more innovative than UK and US counterparts Irish Examiner 03/04/2019 Small business ‘content with size’ Irish Examiner 03/04/2019… Read more

Innovating … into trouble!

Innovation is good isn’t it? We all love exciting new products or services which are useful and add value to our lives. For firms too innovation can be good for attracting new customers and increasing profits. But what happens when innovation goes wrong? We have all experienced this. Think about the last time you tried… Read more