Current research
- Restructuring in SMEs
- The year ahead: a view from Britain’s small businesses 2011
- On the Road to Recovery: A Longitudinal Analysis of Small Firm Survival and Growth Strategies in Post Recessionary Conditions
- The development of a measure of the innovative characteristics of young people
- The Role of SMPs in Providing Business Support to SMEs: An Information Paper for the International Federation of Accountants
- The Role of Competence, Trust and Professional Ethics in the Supply of External Financial Advice by Accountants to SMEs
This project has been commissioned by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND). The aim of the study is to develop our understanding of the drivers, methods and consequences of restructuring in SMEs. The study will involve partners from 23 states across Europe. The project is led by Professor David Smallbone with Dr John Kitching and Eva Kasperova.
The year ahead: a view from Britain’s small businesses 2011
This repeat project, funded by Barclays Bank and undertaken by Robert Blackburn and Thomas Wainwright, seeks to examine how SMEs sector are performing during the recovery and the challenges they are experiencing. The study utilises a large scale survey across Britain (n=1000) and analyses the results by business size, region and sector. The research suggests that business confidence is decreasing within SMEs as a result of the slow economic recovery, but overall business confidence and growth expectations remain relatively high as firms are identifying new opportunities.
On the Road to Recovery: A Longitudinal Analysis of Small Firm Survival and Growth Strategies in Post Recessionary Conditions
This study, co-funded by the ISBE’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund and Workspace Ltd, is concerned with the challenges and opportunities facing small firms as the economy moves out of recession, and the strategies used by owners and managers in response. The study builds on results of previous research undertaken by the SBRC focusing on the responses of small firms to economic downturn. This previous research was reported in a prize-winning paper by John Kitching, David Smallbone and Mirela Xheneti, at the ISBE Conference in 2009. The 2009 study emphasised the variety of responses of small firms to recession but also their underlying resilience, which is associated with a high level of flexibility. One of the key unanswered questions emerging from the previous study concerns the implications of the different forms of adaptation undertaken by firms in 2008-9 for their medium- and longer-term performance prospects and the extent to which the strategies previously adopted to survive the recession affect the scope for management action once the economy begins to pick up.
The development of a measure of the innovative characteristics of young people
Principal Investigator - Professor Elizabeth Chell
In 2007, NESTA commissioned Professor Chell and her team (Rosemary Athayde and Andrew Greenman) to carry out work to identify the innovative characteristics of young people and develop a measure of these characteristics. The conceptual basis of this work drew from the research for her book – Elizabeth Chell (2008) ‘The Entrepreneurial Personality – a social construction’, Routledge/The Psychology Press. The method has in part drawn on Rosemary’s doctoral work. For further detail of this work, please see the NESTA website.
The current project builds on this work by developing and testing the Tool further, and establishing norms by age of student (ages 14-19 years). The PI, Prof Chell, will be working with a software company to ensure that a final product is produced which will enable every young person who completes the on-line questionnaire to receive a ‘spiky profile’ of their innovative characteristics accompanied by a personalised set of guidance notes. The information may be used for self-development purposes. A revised on-line questionnaire has been developed, draft self-reports and guidance notes have been developed and work with the company will commence in the near future.
The Role of SMPs in Providing Business Support to SMEs: An Information Paper for the International Federation of Accountants
This Information Paper sponsored by IFAC (Blackburn and Jarvis) will provide an analysis of the literature and knowledge base on the practices of small and medium sized accountancy practices (SMPs) in the provision of business support services to their small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) clients. This will involve an investigation of the SME-SMP relationship. Specifically, the paper will: examine the content and motivations of the SMP – SME relationship with specific focus on the provision of advice to SMEs, over and above statutory compliance services; identify gaps in the knowledge base on the SME-SMP relationship. The paper may result in recommendations for further research including suggesting ways in which SMPs may develop their relationship with SMEs with examples from best cases.
The Role of Competence, Trust and Professional Ethics in the Supply of External Financial Advice by Accountants to SMEs
This research is commissioned by the ACCA and is undertaken by Robert Blackburn with Peter Carey and George A. Tanewski from Monash University (Melbourne Australia). The aim of the research is to provide a detailed understanding of the nature of services provided by accountants and financial advisers to SMEs; examine the intervening role institutional and professional competence, trust and ethics play in the demand for business services from accountants by SME clients; where possible draw out implications for the accountancy profession on the basis of the results; and feed into a larger scale survey of SME-accountant relations focusing on non-compliance business services. The research involves a literature review and a limited number of face-to-face interviews with owner-managers of SMEs, financial advisers and accountants in England and Australia.
