Research Report

The State of Small Business Britain 2021

Enabling the Triple Transition

Author

ERC

Associated Themes
  • Innovation
  • Productivity and performance

The State of Small Business Britain report is the Enterprise Research Centre’s annual review of trends affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. The report discusses the findings from research and analysis carried out and/or published by the ERC in 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to dominate the research agenda this year, with its many ongoing implications for entrepreneurs and SMEs. In this report we draw together and summarise the different strands of our research to give a picture of how UK SMEs have responded to the challenges and opportunities that they have faced. We do this by focusing on the ways in which SMEs are adapting to what we call the ‘Triple Transition’. By this we mean the combined shifts in business digitisation, adoption of net zero practices and productivity upgrading that business are navigating. We also consider the implications of our research insights for policymakers aiming to maximise the resilience of the UK’s SME community in 2022 and beyond.


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