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Research by Professor Richard Thorpe from 2003 to 2010 at Leeds University Business School (LUBS) on management learning and leadership in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has impacted three groups: (i) business education providers (universities, colleges and training organisations), who have used the research to improve the training and education they provide for SMEs; (ii) SME owner-mangers, who have been exposed to the research when attending business programmes, which has enabled them to build on their entrepreneurial behaviour and improve their strategic planning; (iii) government, regional and sector policymakers, who have used the research in policies designed to generate growth in SMEs.
The Leading Enterprise and Development (LEAD®) programme has supported skills development by over 3,000 small-and-medium sized enterprise (SME) owners, creating over 10,000 jobs. Four franchises now operate: LEAD North West, South West, London and Wales. Developed by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (IEED), LEAD's syllabus includes action learning, coaching, shadowing, exchanges and reflection. LEAD has featured on BBC TV and Radio 4, and cited in the House of Lords Select Committee SME Exports report. The research insights and impact of LEAD informed a successful £32 million Regional Growth Fund bid to support business growth in 20 UK cities.
This international research project, based on the work of a consortium of five European countries led by the University of Salford in the area of Enterprise Cultural Heritage (ECH), (the term describing an organisation's history and its creations that have the potential to uniquely innovate and differentiate their products and services), demonstrates the following impact:
Impact is primarily economic and organizational, resulting from more effective leadership processes and practices by small firm owner-managers. The mechanism of impact was a programme known as LEAD (leadership, enterprise and development), which drew a significant community of owner-managers of smaller firms in Greater Merseyside into the Management School, to enable them to use research findings about managerial and entrepreneurial learning, leadership and business support in the running of their firms. The resulting impacts were on management practices and processes, and firm performances. Practitioners engaging with the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS) LEAD programme experienced turnover increases averaging 21%. The beneficiaries are small firms, their employees and business support partnerships.
Impacts include:
Through repeat-funded projects, Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) has developed strong European collaborations with Research Technology Developers (RTDs), SMEs and public body partners. Funded projects have addressed European R&D dissemination and use in health-based SMEs; knowledge transfer in the environmental sector; and knowledge transfer in manufacturing.
Research into entrepreneurship and business start-up at Manchester Metropolitan University has created know-how to support new entrepreneurs and to guide established businesses through renewal and change. With an emphasis on "knowledge in action", MMU's entrepreneurship research has provided a cornerstone for start-up, growth and leadership programmes offered by the university's Centre for Enterprise (CfE), and seen by owner-managers themselves as positively impacting directly on their businesses. Utilising research-based knowledge, CfE has worked with 150 start-ups and 1,500 small firms and social enterprises in the North West of England, fostering job creation, access to funding, and business growth.
Since its inception in 2005, Bangor Business School's Centre for Business Research (CBR) has developed a research agenda focusing on the North West Wales (NWW) EU convergence region, which is dominated by Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a distinctively bilingual (Welsh/English) flavour operating in a rural setting. This research has had a significant impact on both local and regional economies by changing the strategies for innovation and growth of individual SME's. The achieved impact came in the form of tangible growth (5% in one instance), successful bidding & grant acquisition (£400K in one case), improved marketing and customer-management, and enhanced knowledge transfer partnerships, which are reflected in greater employment opportunities as evidenced from the supportive statements of the main users of this research
This case study refers to the work in supporting SMEs' e-business adoption undertaken by staff in the Business and Information Systems Research Centre (BISC) led by Professor Duan. Our research was supported by a number of EU funded projects, including VEGNET (knowledge transfer in e-supply chains), TRIMAR (e-marketing for SMEs), TRICTSME (e-commerce in SMEs), LFEC (Languages for e-commerce), Webstep (Business website design for SMEs), amongst others. SMEs are the principal beneficiaries of all these projects, with our research impacts on SMEs including:
Our research into learning through digital technologies has increased the focus on the importance of learning processes and context. The research developed new models of strategic evaluation and learning framework analyses as well as a new concept of MEGAcognition. These have shaped the development, customisation and implementation of more appropriate digital educational resources, nationally and internationally. Our research has involved and influenced key national and international companies and groups. Its users have been policy makers and developers, as well as teachers and pupils in primary and secondary schools. The research has: 1) influenced policy and practice developments nationally and internationally (in UK government departments and the e-strategy agency, and in five major resource development companies and corporations with international reach); 2) increased awareness of and engagement in learning opportunities (in four local authorities); 3) built capacity (in three resource development companies and projects); 4) offered insights into ways to develop, refine and customise educational products for specific audiences (in six resource development companies and local authorities); 5) raised awareness and understanding of educational concepts to non-academic audiences nationally and internationally (through 35 public and private seminars and keynote sessions to national and international audiences); 6) raised awareness of learning and pedagogical practices (in six major resource development companies and corporations).
Profitnet®, established in 2004 by researchers at the University of Brighton's (UoB) Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM), has influenced the performance of over 1,100 small businesses in the UK, Ireland and South Africa, working with the leaders of these businesses and affecting the working life of around 15,000 employees. The University has established 84 peer-to-peer networks in these countries, transforming the profitability and sustainability of the participating small companies. Evidence from the county of Sussex shows that Profitnet-participating firms in Sussex increased their gross profits by 9% while the overall population of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the county experienced a decrease of 15.2% in profits during the same time.