Growing productivity: a Scottish recipe – Director’s Blog- May 2016

Growing productivity: a Scottish recipe We have heard a lot recently – at least before Brexit became flavour of the news – about the need to boost productivity. And, in particular how the government can help firms to grow productivity. It turns out that the answer, or at least part of the answer, may have… Read more

ERC Insight Paper Released. February 19th 2016

Spatial Incidence of High Growth Firms High-Growth Firms (HGFs) are a very small proportion of the UK business population yet they have a disproportionate impact on job creation. We present data at local economic area level over time to show that there is a very distinct geography emerging for the incidence rate of HGFs since… Read more

Invest Ni Research note on ERC paper

Leadership and management skills in SMEs ERC Research conducted by Professor James Hayton cited in Invest NI updated Research Note. Deficiencies in Leadership and Management Skills (LMS), and not implementing management best practices, are a key constraint on business performance in the UK.  To provide evidence of how LMS influence the adoption of best practice… Read more

ERC Directors’ Blog

Our blog provides a space for comment by the ERC Directors on current issues related to entrepreneurship, small business development and innovation. Blog posts are contributed by the ERC Directors Professor Stephen Roper (Stephen.roper@wbs.ac.uk) and Professor Mark Hart (Mark.Hart@aston.ac.uk). Please noted that the  views expressed in this blog belong to the individual blogger and do not… Read more

Nations and regions outpace London for high growth firms

News release NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR BROADCAST UNTIL 00.01 ON FRIDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2016 19 February 2016 Number of high growth firms – seen as indicator of economic health – reaches nearly 12,000, highest level since the dotcom boom. The number of companies achieving high growth in the nations and regions of the UK is rising more than… Read more

ERC goes International

Stephen Roper was recently part of a team working with OECD to advise the government of Abu Dhabi on the development of the entrepreneurial eco-system. The final report from the project has just been published by OECD. Stephen’s involvement in the project focussed on boosting innovative entrepreneurship and SME innovation and stressed the importance of… Read more

ERC’s New Project Pipeline

2016 sees the start of ERC’s new series of research projects with a focus on the drivers of SME growth and productivity. Key topics include the role of innovation and commercialisation in promoting productivity, the impact of barriers to finance on internationalisation, the role of management and leadership in promoting growth and a focus on… Read more

ERC Press coverage 2015

French 22/12/2015 French Press coverage for ERC – The British employment record after record beating  FT 16/12/2015 ERC 2015 ONS data analysis – Companies create jobs at fastest rate for two decades Belfast Telegraph 24/11/2015 Foreign firms do matter but small business is our real backbone  Legal Business 14/07//2015 The innovation perspective. get the right end… Read more