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March 2019

The State of Small Business Britain Conference 2019 - 
Registration now open!


We are pleased to announce that the 6th State of Small Business Britain Conference will take place on Thursday 27th June at The Shard in London. The theme of the conference this year will be ‘Strengthening Sectors’. An engaging mix of speakers from research, policy and industry will focus on the question of how we can strengthen key sectors of the UK economy. We will also be launching new comparative research on UK firms on the day. The conference is aimed at anyone interested in the success of the SME community in the UK, and has become a must-attend event for those working in enterprise research, support and policy. Places are limited and are likely to fill up quickly, so we would encourage early registration. 

Click here to register

Latest Publications 

Job Creation and Destruction in the UK 1998-2018
Insight Paper 

 
Using an established international analytical framework for job creation and destruction we observe that just over a quarter of all jobs in the private sector were either destroyed or created over a typical 12 month period – a remarkable level of turbulence in the UK labour market which provides a more granular analysis of the recent so-called ‘employment miracle’. Despite the rise in employment since the Great Recession there has been a slight fall in the measure of business dynamism which is a cause for concern given its importance to the overall level of productivity in the economy.
Dr Neha Prashar
The Official story – Job Creation and Destruction
March 2019

Does learning from prior collaboration help firms to overcome the ‘two-worlds’ paradox in university-business collaboration? 
Nola Hewitt- Dundas
Areti  Gkypali
Stephen Roper


Published as Research article in ScienceDirect: 
Employee engagement and business performance – a review of quantitative evidence
SOTA Review No 22

Employee engagement has been a hot topic in recent years among both academic researchers and practitioners. It is often believed that employee engagement can drive productivity and creativity and improve business performance. But what does the evidence suggest about the relationship between employee engagement and business performance? 

Cai-Hui ( Veronica) Lin
Read the SOTA here 


 

Self-employment and local growth 
SOTA Review No 23

Rapid growth in self-employment in some economies, of which the UK is a notable example, has raised the salience of whether growing self-employment (SE) contributes to economic growth and regional development (RD). The UK experience is that self-employment growth is not spatially uniform (Henley, 2017), and so this question is often framed in terms of local economic benefits. 

Andrew Henley
Read the SOTA here 


 

Who benefits from apprenticeships? the english experience
SOTA Review No 24

Apprenticeships are paid jobs incorporating on- and off-the-job training. Traditionally they have been seen as a route for young people to transition from education to productive skilled employment. In practice apprenticeships are very diverse – in terms of age of apprentices and levels and quality of apprenticeships.


Anne Green
Read the SOTA here 


 

University research and regional development
SOTA Review No 25

University research contributes to regional development through the way it becomes incorporated into different kinds of ‘products’ that make technological knowledge more accessible for local innovating companies. However, universities do not exclusively contribute through their research; their expenditure effects can be important, and teaching activities building regional human capital can also contribute to region’s territorial innovation capacity.

Paul Benneworth
Read the SOTA here 


 

ERC in the Press

The Telegraph: How well do SMEs budget for technology?

Reuters : Pre-recession signals lurk in the UK jobs data- research

New York times : Pre-recession signals lurk in the UK jobs data- research

Out and About

ERC Research Showcase

The latest ERC Research Showcase event took place on 7th March at The Shard in London. There was a packed agenda full of updates on a variety of projects currently underway at the centre. The aim of the day was to present and discuss emerging findings with key stakeholders. A range of topics were covered, including management and innovation, access to finance, returns to R&D, local productivity, digital diffusion and business resilience. We had excellent attendance on the day, and some very useful discussion. Our Showcase events play an essential role in helping the ERC achieve its mission of providing high quality, useful policy-relevant research.
Look out for the next one which will take place later this year.

Full presentation slides from the event are available here


 

Productivity Insights Network International Advisory Board meeting and Conference 2019

Vicki Belt participated in the International Advisory Board meeting for the Productivity Insights Network (PIN) which took place on 13th March in Sheffield. The PIN is an ESRC-funded network of social scientists working to develop new insights on the productivity puzzle. There are many linkages with the ERC’s work, and ERC researchers are pleased to be playing a key role in contributing insights and expertise to the network.


ERC Research Fellows also attended the Productivity Insights Network 2019 Conference on 14th March in Sheffield, which brought together researchers and policymakers to discuss the productivity challenge faced by the UK. Many different sub-themes were explored: productivity disparity across regions, agglomeration benefits and drawbacks, skills mismatch, regulation, innovation, infrastructure and inequality, several references were made to ERC research by speakers during the event. An Early Career Researcher (ECR) workshop was held after the Conference in order to aid ECRs working on productivity in bid and grant applications for PIN funding, and ERC Research Fellows also participated in this.

Find out more about the PIN here


Responsible Finance Conference
On 14th March, ERC Research Fellow Maria Wishart attended the annual conference of Responsible Finance, the UK’s network of responsible finance providers, in Liverpool. She spoke about the ERC’s JP Morgan-funded research into business resilience, at a workshop focused on business lending to promote resilience in underrepresented groups. The 2-day conference attracted more than 150 delegates from a wide range of organisations with an interest in promoting fair finance.


Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference
On 17th March, ERC Research Fellow Halima Jibril attended the Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference at Oxford University and presented her paper “Oil prices and external adjustments: Does international financial integration matter?”


Diffusing Excellence Across UK Foundries and Metal Forming Sectors
On 26th March, ERC Research Fellow Temitope Akinremi  attended  the innovation workshop on the “Re-use of Foundry Sand and Spent Investment Casting Shell” facilitated by the CMF, BEIS, the KTN and Innovate UK. As part of the key tasks in the 2nd phase of the project (Diffusion of Excellence across UK Foundries and Metal Forming Firms) the ERC are adopting the Sand Reclamation project as a case study for a detailed insight into multi-firm collaboration in SMEs. 


CREME European Launch
Mark Hart is presenting at the CREME European launch event on the 3rd and 4th of April at Aston Business School.
His presentation titled “Alchemy of Small Business Growth: from econometric modelling to designing impactful peer-to-peer learning programmes for small business leaders” explains how the ERC's research on growth and productivity inform a whole suite of small business programmes at the CREME European launch event on the 3rd and 4th of April at Aston Business School.


‘Engaged scholarship’, ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’ are vogue terms, but how do they work in practice? Academics and practitioners explore the practicalities of conducting engaged research and reflect on their involvement in ongoing collaborations that focus on work and enterprise (particularly in minority groups). We define ‘projects’ as individuals, initiatives and institutions with a sustained commitment to using social science research to address societal challenges. ‘Partners’ encompass scholars and non-academics involved in collaborative work. And, for this workshop, we reflect on the ‘progress’ of partners involved in engaged research centres and initiatives.

There are limited spaces available for this event.
Click here to register


Congratulations to Joanne Turner, ERC Research Fellow based at WBS on passing her PhD. 

What's On


ERC Monthly Seminar 
Date: Tuesday 16th April
Times: 12.00 – 14.00
Venue: Warwick Business School
Presentation: Formal versus informal knowledge protection: Which matters most for innovation returns?  Joanne Turner 


Click here to register
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