Enterprise Research Centre launched in move to return to growth

Businessman brainstorms factors that might influence investment and performance

Imperial College London will help lead a new Enterprise Research Centre set up to identify barriers to growth.

Imperial College Business School will help lead a new Enterprise Research Centre set up to explore the factors that influence business investment and performance, and identify barriers to growth.

Professor Mike Wright, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School, due to become an Associate Director of the centre, said: "Governments are facing massive challenges in finding ways to get the economy growing again. We need to find new ways of financing innovative new businesses but also established businesses, like family firms, with the potential to grow that is not yet being realised.”

He continued: "The new Enterprise Research Centre will conduct rigorous policy-relevant research that will help unlock some of the barriers to business growth.”

The new £2.9 million centre, which launches on 1 January 2013, will become a national and international focus for research, knowledge and expertise on small and medium-sized businesses.

Researchers at the centre will perform international comparisons using the existing knowledge base and data resources, such as Imperial’s Centre for Management Buy-Out Research database, and the college’s Global Entrepreneurship Development Index (GEDI), to establish what works well elsewhere.

They will also explore and hence strengthen understanding of links between evidence and practice with the aim of informing government policy and business practice of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.

The centre will be headed by a consortium of universities, including Imperial College London and the universities of Warwick, Aston, Strathclyde, Birmingham and De Montfort. Research will be carried out in centre hubs, at Warwick and Aston universities, and centre spokes at Imperial College London and Strathclyde.

From Imperial College London, the consortium will benefit from the expertise of Professor Wright, who in 2009 was ranked number one worldwide for publications in entrepreneurship, and Professor Erkko Autio, Chair in Technology Venturing and Entrepreneurship, Director of the Doctoral Programme and lead director of the GEDI research project at the college.

Professor Wright explained: “As there is a need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to enterprise policy we shall be examining the challenges faced by different types of entrepreneurial firms, that is high-tech firms, family businesses, management buyouts, ethnic minority owned businesses and so on, and identify lessons from those that have achieved sustained growth. A key feature of the Centre is that we shall be producing reports for policymakers but also communicating our findings directly to business practitioners through seminars and in the class room."

The centre is a joint collaboration between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the British Bankers Association (BBA), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Technology Strategy Board.

Business and Enterprise Minister Michael Fallon said: “It is essential we listen to our SMEs and understand what makes them tick and how we can help them grow. By collaborating with partners and bringing together leading academics, the new Enterprise Research Centre will help the formulation of long-term policy that will help to stimulate economic growth in the UK.”

The Director of the Centre will be Stephen Roper, Professor of Enterprise at Warwick Business School, who said one of the consortium’s main ambitions is“to establish the Enterprise Research Centre as a reference point for anyone interested in issues around business growth”.

Professor Paul Boyle, Chief Executive of the ESRC, said: "Supporting economic performance and sustainable growth, and developing collaborative partnerships with business and policy are key priorities for the ESRC. I am pleased to be working with the British Bankers Association, the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to develop this new Enterprise Research Centre. Our complementary knowledge and experience make us ideal partners in this investment and by working together we will generate research which will directly benefit business and inform policy development."

Anthony Browne, CEO of BBA, said: “We very much look forward to working with Warwick University and its strong academic consortium in getting the Enterprise Research Centre up and running. This very important initiative will help inform policy, provide a focal point for SME research, bring key knowledge together in one place and help banks better serve their business customers. The research will help policy makers, business organisations and investors work together to develop and deliver initiatives that support enterprise and the UK growth agenda.”

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: "We are very pleased at the announcement that this group of recognised experts in the field of entrepreneurship will lead the new Enterprise Research Centre.  We are looking forward to working together with our co-funders and the Centre to develop a better understanding of the drivers of growth for innovative entrepreneurial businesses, which will help us at the Technology Strategy Board to shape our strategy and delivery mechanisms to be as effective as possible in stimulating business-led innovation and driving economic growth."

By Cher Thornhill