The evaluation assessed the impact of Business Link Local Services on those businesses that received assistance in the 6 month period April to September 2003 and its impact over the subsequent period to May/June 2005. The original aims of the report were:a) To understand and quantify...

The review shows that there are many different models of support to small business - different countries make different choices. The review developed a scale that outlines 26 different choices for policymakers in their design of programmes for business advice. It is important that these choices...

This executive summary reports on a study that tracked Euro preparationsby UK SMEs that had trade or ownership links with the EU. This study isunique because unlike other studies which measure Euro preparationsamongst the general UK business population, it tracks ‘euro aware’ UKbusinesses...

To whom should potential new firm founders turn to for advice? This article identifies buzz as a mechanism to transfer the knowledge of who to turn to for advice. Previous work on buzz has linked it with clusters or compared local buzz with international pipelines of information. The interaction...

This study provides empirical evidence on the input and output additionality achieved by UK firms receiving R&D tax incentives only, R&D and innovation grants only, and a combination of both incentives. Four key findings emerge. First, we find strong evidence of input additionality from each...

A lack of understanding exists regarding how technology and market knowledge can be incorporated effectively within an organisation's approaches to Innovation and New Product and Service Development (I&NP&SD). We present a previously developed theoretical framework for representing both...

The aim of this paper is to explore the transition from traditional measures to creativity and innovation measures within a number of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) case studies. The need for increased competitiveness has created an impetus for increased creativity and innovation in...