FEATURE GOING FOR GROWTH
let them get on with it, with a close eye on monitoring and evaluation.” Professor Sara Carter, deputy principal of the University of Strathclyde and associate director of the ERC, says that the Centre has focused on mining existing underexploited material, and has collected relatively little new data. An example from her own work is the link between diverse households and small businesses. This research has shown that the household within which an enterprise is based has an unexpectedly large influence on its ambitions for growth and on its business strategy. The household’s abilities and desires, says Professor Carter, can often be key to the way the enterprise grows. She has also done work on support for ethnic minority businesses, with a view to unlocking mechanisms that can help them grow. Professor Carter says: “One aim of this work is to put these businesses in touch with bankers, and with people in charge of corporate and local government procurement. These are the people who hold the keys to business growth.“ The ERC is also looking at women entrepreneurs, and at the reasons why women
Professor Hart is especially interested in management development for these businesses, and for the UK companies participating in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme. Run from five universities in the UK, including Aston, this project is part of a global initiative by Goldman Sachs in small company and entrepreneurial development, which he jointly leads in the UK. It has involved around 1,000 British companies to date. He says: “Our aim is to develop a programme which changes the dynamics of these firms. It works via an intensive four-month process of peer-learning to develop management and leadership skills. The emphasis is on mutual learning and community building. This type of learning is far more valuable to these businesses than simply listening to academics.” Hart adds that the story of these businesses:
“is not a London story and is not a digital story.” They exist all over the country, in rural locations as well as city centres. But there are some interesting clusters, such as automotive- related companies in the Midlands and caravan manufacturers around Hull. He also points out that Belfast has the highest proportion of start-ups from 2011 to have reached at least £1 million turnover by 2014. The reason, he thinks, is that Northern Ireland has had a stable business support system while the rest of the UK has “flip-flopped” through a series of changes, most recently the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies and the associated Business Link support offer. He says: “Our evaluation evidence of business support is too thin on the ground to tell us exactly what works, so the best advice is to leave the structures we have alone, resource them adequately and
16 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2015 “ ” i The story of these businesses
is not a London story and is not a digital story
are less likely than men to start a business. Here it seems that government support can be beneficial. Official programmes to boost female entrepreneurship, developed in Scotland and elsewhere, have a measurable positive effect. She adds that although people start businesses
for many reasons, including the desire for autonomy, control and an agreeable lifestyle, it would be foolish to discount the financial rewards that can accompany this decision. Professor Carter says: “we did work in which we extracted the entrepreneur households in the UK Wealth and Assets Survey. They had an average household wealth of £475,000, twice the figure of £246,000 for households led by employees. More than half of the entrepreneur households are in the top three deciles [the top 30 per cent] for household wealth. It may be true that wealthy people are more likely to become entrepreneurs, but the evidence is clear that entrepreneurship itself drives personal and household wealth.” n
The Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) was established in February 2013 to answer one central question, ‘What drives SME Growth?’
The Centre’s research is divided into six main research themes – Ambition, Business Demography, Diversity, Finance and Governance, Innovation and Exporting and Leadership.
The Centre aspires to become the international focal point for research, knowledge and expertise on SME growth and entrepreneurship.
Web
www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/about @ERC_UK
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