Firms’ increasing use of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely highlighted. At the same time, evidence of the growing climate crisis also points to the need for firms to move towards more sustainable, low carbon ways of operating. The implications of these digital and net zero transitions for firms’ productivity upgrading are… Read more
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,… Read more
Rural businesses in parts of England have shown remarkable resilience during Covid-19 by innovating and adapting in response to the severe economic challenges of the pandemic, according to a major new survey from the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) led by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC). More than a third of rural firms… Read more
BEIS invites proposals for secondary analyses of the Longitudinal Small Business Survey. Proposals are especially welcome on productivity and place, long term indicator trends, COVID-19 impacts and geographical disparities between firms in capabilities, attitudes or performance. Other topics will also be considered. Proposals are due 17th December 2021. For any queries please contact the Centre… Read more
In episode 5 of the Exploring Enterprise Podcast series ERC Director Professor Stephen Roper is joined by Dr Anastasia Ri, Research Fellow at the ERC; Jonathan Withey, Head of Business Development and Planet Mark; and Catherine Westoby, Senior Policy Adviser, Public Behaviour Change on Net Zero at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy… Read more
On the eve of COP26, attention is firmly focused on the climate challenge and the need for action by governments, big business, and households. Yet there will be no transition to net zero without small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Why would small business leaders adopt net zero practices? Many SMEs are still reluctant to… Read more
When it comes to climate change, most attention is placed on the need for action by governments, big business, and individual householders. There are nearly 6 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, employing 16.8 million people, yet they attract far less scrutiny for their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, and tend to… Read more
2020 was a terrible year for UK trade. Overall, UK exports in goods contracted by almost 15%, down by £54.5 bln[i] in the twelve-month period, this is even worse than the contraction seen in the UK economy as a whole, which was just under 10% in GDP terms. [ii] Furthermore, the early 2021 bilateral trade… Read more
In a report published today research conducted by UK Research and Innovation found that only 56% of UK businesses across six foundation industry sectors introduced new products and 53% new processes in the last three years, namely metals, paper, chemicals, glass, ceramics and cement companies. UKRI commissioned the Enterprise Research Centre to undertake the research as… Read more
Climbing a mountain, travelling North or spending time near the sea we all become aware of differences in the climate. In some places configurations of landscape create specific micro-climates, which create conditions of warmth or shelter allowing plants and gardens to flourish. Recent research suggests that business innovation may work in a similar way, with… Read more
The dire consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on many firms across the UK continue with depressing implications for employment and future prosperity. The government has invested heavily in supporting businesses through the furlough scheme, loan schemes and rate relief. The strengths and limitations of these measures have been widely covered in the media, but less… Read more
‘Furlough envy’, isolation and additional home stresses have triggered deteriorations in workplace mental health, new study suggests Workers less likely to talk to managers about experiencing mental health problems since lockdown, fearing ‘repercussions’ Study highlights need to raise awareness among employers of resources available to support mental health Workers have become less open about… Read more
While some of us have been able to work at home during the Covid-19 crisis – and may have actually improved our productivity – this has not been the case for most of those involved in research and development (R&D). Lock-down has meant no access to laboratories or the specialist kit needed, so many R&D… Read more
We have got used to recognising the role of innovation in generating growth and prosperity in all economies. At first, society heaped praise on individuals who led technological change (for example, Trevithick, Armstrong or Brunel). In the last 100 years, greater emphasis was given to larger firms and government policy to lead the “white heat… Read more
Three new ERC research reports focusing on innovation and productivity in the Northern Ireland economy have been published. The reports, authored by ERC research associates based at Queens University Belfast and Warwick Business School were funded by the Department for Economy Northern Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland. They focus on the interrelationship between R&D, innovation… Read more
The ERC are pleased to announce that they are partners in a new National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE), which is to be launched on 1st September this year, funded by Research England. The new Centre will support enterprise, resilience and innovation among rural firms and aim to unlock the untapped potential of rural… Read more
It seems increasingly clear that the economic impacts of COVID-19 will be startlingly sharp for the UK and other world economies. The great unknown at present is whether the historic quarterly contraction we’re expecting to see in Q2 of 2020 is followed by a rebound, or a deep and painful recession. What’s also difficult to… Read more
Over the last few days we have seen some inspiring and innovative responses to the Corona Virus crisis by UK firms and universities. The JCB-Dyson collaboration to produce ventilators and the UCL-Mercedes AMG collaboration to develop other breathing aids are outstanding examples. Necessity is the mother of invention after all. But what of the wider… Read more
Education of consumers and minimising red tape is essential as the UK develops its own ‘geographical indication’ (GI) labelling system for traditional food products following Brexit, new research shows The introduction of a new system for protecting unique British food products such as Cornish pasties and Melton Mowbray pork pies will depend on better educating… Read more
Education of consumers and minimising red tape is essential as the UK develops its own ‘geographical indication’ (GI) labelling system for traditional food products following Brexit, new research shows. An economic analysis by researchers from the ERC found that the primary benefits of the geographical indication (GI) scheme came from the protection of unique, heritage… Read more
The term ‘innovation’ is widely used and abused. What do you imagine when you think of ‘innovation’? Something new? New technology? New drugs or the latest app? Any or all of these could be innovations each of which will have very different impacts on society and the firms and consumers they touch. A new edition… Read more
Although productivity growth across the developed world has fallen, the data is clear that productivity in the UK is lagging other industrialised countries. One of the challenges with policy development to improve productivity is that there needs to be some consensus as to what the underlying issues are. But for the UK there is currently… Read more
We know that firms use knowledge protection mechanisms to limit imitation and enhance their ability to appropriate the returns to their innovative investments. Recent research at the ERC suggests that both formal (e.g. patents) and informal (e.g. secrecy) knowledge protection mechanisms are important for the innovation returns of small firms (those with fewer than 50… Read more
ERC Research Paper No 77 is published today. Successful innovation requires both effective idea generation and commercialization. Here, we investigate the benefits of alternative collaboration strategies across the idea generation and commercialization stages of the innovation process. Does collaboration generate complementarities between stages of the innovation process? Or, as external collaboration is costly and risky,… Read more
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
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
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
Micro businesses, typically businesses with 9 employees or less, play an important role in stimulating innovation, employment and growth. Despite this, relatively little is known about this important segment of the business population as such businesses are often excluded from official surveys. This report published today presents the findings of a survey conducted on micro-businesses… Read more