Summary of the impact

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:

• Developing and integrating the ECH training concept in Change Management, Brand Management, Heritage Management and Intellectual Property Rights training material in five languages;
• Developing online training material under Creative Commons Attribution License for free use and re-distribution available through social media such as SlideShare and Wikipedia, accessed c.30,000 times;
• Generating economic and social benefits internationally and leading to a transfer project in the Leonardo da Vinci Development of Innovation scheme entitled Quality & Innovation in Vocational Training for Enterprise Cultural Heritage management.

Summary of the impact

Impacts include:

1. Providing tools, processes, events by which SMEs can engage with universities
2. Allowing SMEs and universities to jointly create technology roadmaps and engage in knowledge transfer
3. Encouraging SMEs to become involved in R&D projects by providing tools to National Contact Points (NCPs).

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.

Summary of the impact

This interdisciplinary research work in the areas of Knowledge Management (KM), e-Business, enterprise systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Supply Chain Management resulted in socio economic impact through improved organisational performance in 90 companies in the North West, resulting in process improvements, enhanced productivity, marketability, increased revenues, employment, reduced costs, enhanced knowledge capital, profitability, and sustainability. This positive regional impact included an ERDF funded project (£1.4m), 5 KTPs (£500,000), an ESRC project, and other bespoke collaborative company projects. This research work in collaboration with industry encompassed a knowledge sharing regional network that included BAE Systems, Daimler, Northwest Aerospace Alliance, APPH Group — BBA Aviation, Hyquip Limited, Alliance Learning Limited, Darts Corner Limited etc.

Summary of the impact

The University of Surrey has developed a set of tools that is enabling us to develop innovative web-based information systems with much lower resources than has formerly been possible.

These tools and techniques are being exploited by a University of Surrey spinout, Rulemotion.

The underlying platform has now been used to develop eight distinct business systems. A key feature of our approach is that it enables the business domain to be modelled in structured natural language (using the Object Management Group (OMG) supported standard SBVR [for Semantics of Business Vocabularies and Rules]). The server side functionality is then generated from the business model. Rulemotion is the first organisation to offer such extensive support of SBVR. This is a key fusion of the Business Analysis (Business Rules) and Information Technology domains — the gulf between these two communities has been an area of tension for the past 30 years.

Summary of the impact

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

Summary of the impact

The Lord Ashcroft International Business School (LAIBS) has had ongoing impact on SMEs and their internationalisation. The underlying research by Mughan and Lloyd-Reason successfully made the case for regional support to encourage and stimulate export activity. Following on from this work, the CURA-B project has had impacts for SMEs, economic support agencies, key customers and knowledge centres in the Assistive Technology (AT) sector. LAIBS has worked with SMEs, economic support agencies and key customers in coaching and consultative roles and through hosted large-scale engagements. LAIBS has helped shape the ecology of the support infrastructure now being put in place in the East of England, West Flanders, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Zeeland.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Building on excellent computer science research, carried out in a number of applied research centres, the University has taken a leading role in the establishment and development of the software sector in the North East. This has resulted in a regional strategic approach, which has delivered significant social and economic benefits, with impacts including the creation of jobs, SME growth, cluster establishment and inward investment. Sunderland's applied computing research has also resulted in an increase in innovation and research in software SMEs and has impacted on the perception of Sunderland as the heart of a regional software cluster.

Summary of the impact

Research published by Pugh, Wyld and Tyrrall (2001) was adopted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) to provide the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of their lobbying campaign for a sliding scale of excise duty for small breweries (also known as "progressive beer duty"; henceforth, PBD). This campaign led to the introduction of PBD in the 2002 Budget. Subsequent evaluation (Wyld, Pugh and Tyrrall, 2010) established that PBD has helped to generate new businesses (well over 100) and new jobs (at least several hundred) that otherwise would not have been brought into existence.

Summary of the impact

The impact in this case is based on 20 years of research, dissemination and interactions with policy-makers and practitioners. It culminated in the OECD/APEC Athens action plan (2008) which currently drives global policy on support for SME internationalisation, the establishment of a new School of Entrepreneurship and Management at the Romanian Academy of Economic Studies and generated 132 new entrepreneurial businesses (2010-13). This led to a Barclays-funded project in South Africa (2012) to support the internationalisation of 30 local businesses. The research has therefore resulted in improved SME performance and entrepreneurial management which drives economic growth nationally and globally.