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
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
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 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, Takeovers and Investment
The Competitiveness of the UK and its Multinational Companies
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
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 Enterprises
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
Labour Market Reform and Social Inclusion: The Case of New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark
Manufacturing Strategy and Competitiveness
Modelling Business Duration and Business Failure
The National Small and Medium Sized Business Surveys
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 "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
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
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