SMEs and entrepreneurship (CBR research area)

The projects within this research area are concerned with developing and testing models of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) performance and its determinants, with policy analysis and with methods of complex survey design and analysis necessary to investigate models of business performance. Performance includes innovative activity and export activity, as well as growth, profitability and survival. Determinants include internal management and organisational characteristics, the strategic behaviour of managers including strategies of co-operation and collaboration, as well as external environmental factors, including financial, labour and product market constraints. The project is concerned with policy evaluation and evaluation methodology, and with the comparison of the performance characteristics of different groups of firms including high-technology and conventional businesses.

Associated research themes

Bankruptcy and insolvency

Business clusters

Corporate growth

Entrepreneurship policy

Family businesses

Financing innovation

Financing smaller businesses

Innovation policy

Innovation systems

Inter-firm collaboration

Open innovation

Regional innovation

Research and development

SMEs business advice and support

Startups and commercialisation

Training and management practices

Venture capital and hedge funds

Associated research projects

Addressing Gender Inequality through Corporate Governance

Agglomerative and Deglomerative Processes and Small Firms Development in Business and Professional Services

Analysis of Middle Market Firms

Analysis of the Relationship between Training and Business Performance

Assessing the Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME Survey)

Bankruptcy Law and Entrepreneurship

Barriers to Innovation and Growth in High Technology SMEs: The Role of Absorptive Capacity

Building a Biomedical Enterprise and Commercialising Science: Entrepreneurial UK Genomics Firms in Comparative Perspective

Building Economic Competitiveness: Lessons from Small Peripheral European States

Business Advice, Public Support and the Supply Chain

Business Failure and Macroeconomic Instability

Capright: Resources, Rights and Capabilities in Europe

CIS4 and Oslo Manual Revision: Early Stage Pilot

Comparative Study of Knowledge Exchange in the United States and the United Kingdom

Competition and Performance

Competition, Takeovers and Investment

The Competitiveness of the UK and its Multinational Companies

Concepts of Insolvency

The Connectivity of the Arts and Humanities: New Analysis of Missing Links

The Contribution of Services and Other Sectors to Australian Productivity Growth 1995-2005

Corporate Governance and Innovation

Corporate Law and Economic Performance

Corporate Rescue: Impact of the Enterprise Act 2002

Corporate Responses to Macroeconomic Changes and Shocks

Design Study for a Survey of UK Management Practices

Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe (DIME)

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of HEFCE/OSI Third Stream Funding

Evaluation of the Golden Key Package Component of the Small Business Initiative Funded by the British Bankers Association

Evidence Base for Innovation Policy (UK~IRC)

Evolution of Governance Arrangements in the Family Firm

Finance, Training and SME Performance: An Evaluation Study of the Small Business Initiative

FINNOV – Finance, Innovation and Growth: Changing Patterns and Policy Implications

Flexible Specialisation, Competitive Advantage and Business Structuring in the UK Computer Industry

Funding Breakthrough Technology

The Future of Professional Work

The Globalising Behaviour of UK Firms in a Comparative Context

Government Support for Small Business Innovation and the SBIR

High Tech CEOs and Their Businesses

Impact of the Enterprise Act 2002

The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Small and Medium Sized Businesses in the Cleaning and Security Sectors

The Impact of the National Minimum Wage on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Insolvency and Stakeholding

The Integrated Knowledge Centre (IKC) Commercialisation Laboratory

International Innovation Benchmarking and the Determinants of Business Success

Knowledge Exchange between Arts and Humanities and the Private, Public and Third Sectors

The Knowledge Hub (UK~IRC)

Labour Market Reform and Social Inclusion: The Case of New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark

The Learning Factory

The Legal Framework Governing Business Firms and its Implications for Manufacturing Scale and Performance

Manufacturing Strategy and Competitiveness

MAPSME

MAPSME II

Modelling Business Duration and Business Failure

The National Small and Medium Sized Business Surveys

Networks, Collective Learning and R&D in Regionally Clustered High-technology Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

New Modes of Innovation: Managerial and Strategic Business Practices and Open Innovation (UK~IRC)

New Product Development Performance in the UK and Japanese Automotive Industries

Northern Ireland SME Benchmarking Survey

The Organisation of Entrepreneurial Technology Firms in Several European Countries

Research Using UK Innovation Survey 2005 Data

The Role of Banks versus Venture Capital in Financing Small Enterprises in Successful European Regions

The Role of "Soft Companies" and Government R&D Contracts in Development of SMEs

The Role of Management Practices in Closing the Productivity Gap

The Role of Technology Policy in Incubating European New Technology-Based Firms

Services Innovation and Innovative Performance at the Sector Level (UK~IRC)

SME Finance and Innovation in the Current Economic Crisis

SME Performance and Policy

Spatial Variations in Innovations and Absorptive Capacity

Startup Finance: A Study of Micro Finance amongst Soft and Hard Companies

Strategic Advisory Board on Intellectual Property (SABIP) Review

Structural Change, Competitive Advantage and the Regulation of the Media

Survey of National Health Service Reforms and the Working Lives of Midwives and Physiotherapists

Territorial Clustering and Innovative Milieux: Technology-based Firms in the Cambridge and Oxford Regions

The UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC)

UK Survey of SME Finances 2007

UK~IRC and CIHE Task Force: Enhancing Value: Getting the Most out of UK Research

Universities and Their Role in Systems of Innovation: A Comparative Assessment of UK and US Institutions and Locales

University-Industry Knowledge Exchange: Demand Pull, Supply Push and the Public Space Role of Higher Education Institutions in the UK Regions

Updating Employment Institutions and Governance

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