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September 2019

Latest Publications 

UK Local Growth Dashboard 2019

Monday 9th September saw the publication of the 2019 UK Local Growth Dashboard which has been developed by the ERC and builds on the LEP Growth Dashboard first launched in June 2014. Its purpose is to present a set of growth metrics for start-ups and existing firms across a range of sub-national geographies in the UK with a specific focus on each of the 38 English Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas.  Alongside these metrics it provides some other contextual data for each LEP including the changing sectoral composition of local economies over time.

Read the full report here 
Read the press release here 

University Engagement and Productivity in SMEs:
An Empirical Assessment

Research Paper No 78

Current debates around the nature of the innovation process increasingly stress its open character, whereby firms utilise knowledge and expertise from outside organisations. From the perspective of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), open innovation allows the leveraging of additional resources which they would not necessarily be able to develop alone. In the context of open innovation universities are often cited as important sources of external knowledge and key nodes within innovation systems due to their ability to generate and transfer new, cutting edge, knowledge.

Dr Andrew Johnston
Daniel Prokop

Read the paper here 
An Investigation of UK SME Access to Finance, Growth and Productivity, 
2015-2017

Research Paper No 79

This paper summarises findings from a pilot study exploring UK SME access to external finance, growth and productivity, addressing three key research questions:
• What are the characteristics of SMEs that determine their funding and discouragement?
• What are the impacts of external finance on SME performance and productivity?
• What are the implications for policy?


Dr Robyn Owen
Tiago Botelho
Osman Anwar
Theresia Harrer
Suman Lodh
Read the paper here 

ERC in the Press

Express and Star (West Midlands) Number of business start-ups in the region slump
Northern Echo: Brexit uncertainty to blame for slowdown in new firm creation

Financial Times : Start-ups are scaling up despite Brexit jitters
Business Matters: Start-ups slump as entrepreneurs wait for Brexit certainty
Financial Times  Brexit blamed for sharp fall in number of new start-ups
The Times  Sharp decline in start-ups linked to Brexit uncertainty
The Times  'Three Minute Digest'
The Scotsman Scots start-ups slide as entrepreneurs ‘hold their breath’ ahead of Brexit
The Press and Journal Fall in number of Scottish start-ups attributed to Brexit
Smallbusiness.co.uk Brexit blamed for sharp fall in the number of UK start-ups
Business & Innovation Magazine Start-ups boom in Worcestershire but slump in South East & Wiltshire
London Loves Business  Start-ups slump as entrepreneurs brace for Brexit
Scottish Financial News Brexit blamed for decline in Scottish start-ups
100 Stories Blog 4 things we learned about entrepreneurs from the 2018 GEM report
BQ Live   Gig economy “a springboard for entrepreneurs”
Insights Podcast  Are Irish business owners content to stay small?
The Business Post  The economy is booming, but it’s all down to foreign giants
 

Out and About

British Academy of Management ( BAM ) conference 2019
2nd - 6th September 
Aston University, Birmingham


The Annual BAM conference was held this year at Aston University. Mark Hart, Stephen Roper and Maria Wishart delivered a workshop entitled ‘Building better business resilience in micro and small firms across Europe’ at a fringe session. This was an opportunity to disseminate the emergent findings of the JP Morgan-funded ‘Building better business resilience’ research project, which the ERC is leading in collaboration with partner institutions from four other European cities. The ERC team were joined at the workshop by Sonali Parekh from the Federation of Small Business (FSB), William Pedder from the Institute of Family Business (IFB) and entrepreneur Olu Orugboh, CEO and Founder of Synergy Solutions, who all participated in a lively and wide-ranging panel discussion.

Maria Wishart and Halima Jibril also presented their paper ‘Do resilient entrepreneurs plan better for adversity?’ in the Entrepreneurship stream at the conference. The paper addresses the link between an entrepreneur’s individual resilience and the resilience planning practices of their firm. It finds a significant relationship between individual resilience and firm-level resilience planning strategies, suggesting that developing an individual leader’s resilience may be a route to shock-proofing their firms

Kevin Mulligan visit to the ERC
ERC welcomed Dr Kevin Mulligan of the University of Limerick, who visited ERC this month and delivered the monthly seminar held at Aston University. Kevin’s work focuses on the impacts of ‘policy-mix’ in innovation support measures with a particular focus on Ireland.
Department for the Economy / Productivity Insights Network roundtable event ‘The Productivity Puzzle: Causes and consequences of stagnating productivity growth and how to reboot productivity growth’
On the 9th September the NI Department for the Economy hosted a roundtable event with the Productivity Insights Network. The aim of the event was to explore the causes and consequences of stagnating productivity growth in Northern Ireland. The morning session began with a context-setting overview of the NI Industrial Strategy; the UK regional productivity picture and the key barriers, constraints and opportunities in the NI context.
The afternoon session focused on the main drivers of productivity, as identified in the NI Industrial Strategy.
Dr Karen Bonner (Queen’s University and Enterprise Research Centre) discussed the link between innovation and productivity, highlighting Northern Ireland’s relatively poor innovation activity levels. Using forthcoming research from the ERC on the pathways to productivity and growth, Karen discussed the effects of different types of innovation on productivity and identified some of the main challenges for policy.

Latest Projects 

Mental health and productivity
ERC and partners from across the Midlands are about to start a major project on mental health and productivity. ERC involvement focuses on understanding the links between mental health, well-being and productivity in firms.
Please contact us if you would like more information on this project
.

What's On

ERC Seminar 
15th October 12.00 - 13.30
WBS


The ERC monthly seminar will take place at Warwick Business School. 
Presentation will be made by Stephen Roper and Jo Turner based on their Research Paper :
Pathways to productivity, pathways to growth: Evidence from the UK Innovation Survey

Previous studies have suggested there is little correlation between productivity and growth at firm level. Here, using data from successive waves of the UK innovation survey we consider two questions. First, do different types of innovation have different effects on productivity and growth? Secondly, we consider whether the source of firms’ R&D finance matters. Together our results suggest the importance of aligning innovation investments with broader corporate and policy objectives and suggest a ‘golden thread’ linking public support for process innovation to positive growth and productivity outcomes.

Click here to register to attend the seminar

SAVE THE DATES


Please save the dates for upcoming events from the ERC. Further announcements will be made when registration opens for these events. 
If you would like any further information please email the
Centre Manager

Building Better Business Resilience Final Report and Toolkit Launch Event 
2nd December 16.30 - 18.30
The Shard, London


ERC Research Showcase
9th December 2019
The Shard,London

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