Entries by Wendy Ferris

From Trump Towers to the White House

Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election could have consequences for the thousands of UK small and medium-sized businesses, especially as the US is the UK’s biggest export destination. During the campaign Trump made some remarks he may regret come January, but the general policy stance in terms of trade and industry is relatively clear:… Read more

Market failures in open innovation: implications and policy responses

Open innovation provides significant advantages for individual firms and may generate wider social benefits. Positive externalities related to knowledge sharing may result from openness itself, and enhanced levels of innovation may lead to otherwise unachieved innovation spillovers. A number of studies have suggested, however, that average levels of OI activity remain well below the level… Read more

Knowledge diffusion, innovation and productivity – changing the game in Wales

The current Brexit debate is important and the structure of the UK’s trading and migration arrangements with our international neighbours will influence our future prosperity. However, other more fundamental long term issues remain important for the UK around productivity. UK productivity lags significantly behind that of our main international competitors and Wales is at the… Read more

Brexit – the innovation bonus

Innovation is always risky. New technologies may not perform, or may take longer to develop than first anticipated. Customers may react negatively to new products or services and innovation may provoke a strong competitive response from competitors. Will uncertainty linked to the post-Brexit settlement increase or depress firms’ appetite for taking these innovation risks? It… Read more

Midlands Engine- Some faulty valves ?

ERC Deputy Director, Professor Mark Hart  undertook research for the Financial Times Special report  “High Growth Companies create jobs and wealth. How can we create more of them?” published 4th October. Data produced by the ERC for the annual UK Growth Dashboard, to be published next month, formed the basis for the chart used in the report.  … Read more

Business schools supporting entrepreneurship and small businesses across the UK.

Stephen Roper  was invited as an ISBE trustee to join the taskforce behind the latest Chartered ABS report on how business schools deliver value to local and regional economies. Professor Roper comments, “The CABS report highlights the valuable contribution business schools make to supporting entrepreneurship and small businesses across the UK. It is good to see… Read more

How can we fill the post-Brexit information gap for SMEs?

ERC’s research on High Growth Firms cited in Enterprise blog by James Tout of sector specialist Communications and Media company, Journalista. “Several recent studies, including groundbreaking research by our client the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC), have shown big regional disparities in the numbers of high-growth firms, sometimes called ‘gazelle firms’, which create a disproportionately high number… Read more

LSBS small grants

Ten applications were received in response to this call. An evaluation committee of Stephen Roper, ERC/ WBS , Ian Drummond, BIS  and James Phipps, BIS considered the proposals using the agreed protocol (60 per cent for programme quality, 20 per cent for project team and cost) and agreed that five proposals should be funded as… Read more