Innovation and SMEs
Hunting the Snark: Some reflections on the UK experience of support for the small business sector
Alan Hughes
Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
PP: 114
Abstract
In the past twenty-five years the UK has experimented with a wide range of policies to promote small and medium size businesses (SMEs). Recently there has been a major overhaul of SME support policies in general and of science and innovation support in particular. So it is a convenient time to reflect on the emerging lessons from this experience.
My talk draws on a long-term programme of SME and policy evaluation research carried out at the Centre for Business Research. This has included a regular biennial survey of over 2000 SMEs carried out since 1991 as well as several innovation policy evaluations and a unique innovation survey benchmarking the UK and the USA.
Keywords
small enterprises, medium enterprises, innovation, policy, market failure, innovation systems, resource distribution, open innovation
References
Cosh AD and Hughes A (eds) (2007) British Enterprise: thriving or surviving? CBR Cambridge.
Cosh AD, Hughes A and Lester RK (2006) UK Plc. Just how innovative are we? Cambridge MIT Institute.
Cox M, Hughes A, Boyns N and Spires R (2001) Evaluation of SMART, DTI Evaluation Report Series No 3.
DTI (2006) Innovation in the UK: Indicators and Insights, DTI Occasional Paper No 6, July.
Hughes A (2007) Innovation Policy as cargo cult: Myth and Reality in Knowledge-led Productivity Growth, CBR Working Paper June 2007: WP348.
Hughes A (2007) University Industry Linkages and UK Science and Innovation Policy, in Yusuf F and Nabeshima K (eds) How Universities promote Economic Growth, World Bank.
ONS (2007) Research and Development in UK Businesses 2005, Business Monitor MA14.
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