750,000 self-employed miss out on UK coronavirus support – study
Lack of provision for most vulnerable self-employed in measures announced by the UK Chancellor last week threatens to “decimate a whole generation of early-stage entrepreneurs”, report authors say. More than 750,000 self-employed people in the UK could miss out on Government support during the coronavirus pandemic, a new analysis has shown. The findings from… Read more
Business, Growth and Productivity workshop
On September 23rd ERC headed to Glasgow to run a workshop on all things small business, growth and productivity. The day was coordinated by Scottish Enterprise and brought in key agencies and partners in Scotland with a stake in the performance of the small business community and those who support it directly through policy delivery,… Read more
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
Unlocking UK Productivity
Press Coverage ERC Published on November 16th 2015, the report was co-authored by Enterprise Research Centre, Goldman Sachs and British Business Bank. Economic Voice 16/11/2015 New report finds smaller businesses are key to solving UK’s ‘productivity gap’ Economic Voice 16/11/2015 SME growth ambition key to UK productivity puzzle Economic Voice 16/11/2015 Small businesses might be… Read more
It’s time Britain’s Brexit negotiators ‘educated’ themselves on the needs of small business
The latest round of Brexit negotiations got off to a predictably bumpy start in the first few weeks after the summer break. Despite suggestions that Theresa May will use a speech in the Italian city of Florence this week to attempt to break the deadlock over the size of the so-called “divorce bill” of future… Read more
State of Small Business Britain 2017
On the 7th September the ERC welcomed over 100 delegates to The Shard for the fourth State of Small Business Britain Conference, with a focus on the theme ‘Driving Innovation and Growth’. This year’s theme was particularly timely, as innovation has been identified as one of the ten strategic pillars to drive growth and productivity… Read more
Adoption, implementation, alignment – maximising the performance benefits of digital investment
Summary of TPI Firms Research Programme 2023-2026 This report co-authored by ERC Director Stephen Roper synthesises five research projects supported by The Productivity Institute (2023–2026) examining how digitalisation influences firms’ productivity, business model innovation, climate strategies, and investment decision-making. Drawing on UK wide surveys, international firm-level datasets, and in-depth qualitative studies, the evidence shows that… Read more
Workplace Wellbeing, Mental Health and Productivity event
On 20th May we held a joint event with the PrOPEL Hub on Workplace Wellbeing, Mental Health and Productivity to share some insights from some of the latest research funded by the ESRC. The first presentation of the day was by ERC Research Fellow Maria Wishart. Maria gave an overview of the emerging findings from… Read more
Unlocking UK Productivity
UK productivity to be boosted by increasing exporting and innovation among small and medium-sized firms. Britain’s productivity is falling behind other economies because it is slower to turn ambitious smaller firms into exporters of innovative new products and services, according to a new report. With more support, it is estimated that up to 110,000 small… Read more
Helping firms along the right road?
Over the last year businesses across the country have been supported by the government through the furlough scheme, loans and grants. But what effects have these schemes had on firms and how will this shape their performance in the future? It’s early days of course and the impacts of COVID-19 continue to be felt in… Read more








