Mole, Kevin, Hart, Mark, Roper, Stephen and Saal, David (2008) Differential gains from Business Link support and advice: a treatment effects approach. In: 29th Annual Conference of the Institute-for-Small-Business-and-Entrepreneurship, Cardiff, Wales, Oct 31-Nov 02, 2006. Published in: Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Vol.26 (No.2). pp. 315-334.

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Abstract

The provision of advisory support to small firms is almost ubiquitous in OECD countries, although it is organised in different ways and is justified on slightly different grounds. In England publicly supported advisory services are provided through the Business Link (BL) network. Here, we consider two questions: what sort of companies receive advisory support from BL; and, what types of firms benefit most from that support? Our analysis is based on a telephone survey of 2000 firms, around half of which had received intensive assistance from BL between April and October 2003. Probit analysis suggests that the probability of receiving assistance was greater among younger businesses, those with larger numbers of directors in the firm, and those with more gender diversity among the firm's leadership team. Our business-growth models suggest that BL intensive assistance was having a positive effect on employment growth in 2003. BL had a positive but insignificant impact on sales growth over the period. Employment growth effects tend to be larger where firms have a management and organisational structure, which is more conducive to absorbing and making use of external advice. The analysis suggests that BL might increase its impact through targeting these larger, more export-orientated, businesses. Employment growth effects differ little, however, depending on either the ethnic or the gender diversity of the leadership team.

Item Type:	Conference Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Accounting Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Centre for Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Management Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title:	Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy
Publisher:	Pion Ltd.
ISSN:	0263-774X
Date:	April 2008
Volume:	Vol.26
Number:	No.2
Number of Pages:	20
Page Range:	pp. 315-334
Identification Number:	10.1068/c0711
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Title of Event:	29th Annual Conference of the Institute-for-Small-Business-and-Entrepreneurship
Type of Event:	Conference
Location of Event:	Cardiff, Wales
Date(s) of Event:	Oct 31-Nov 02, 2006
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/30079

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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