Business Link Services to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Targeting, Innovation, and Charging

Susan Julia Priest

55 citations0/0 files storedEnvironment and Planning C Government and Policy

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Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences Firm Innovation and Growth Innovation Policy and R&D

Abstract

Since the 1970s the provision of business support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain has been through quite separate organisations. The Business Link (BL) network, launched in England in 1992, is the latest initiative by which the government has sought to integrate support to SMEs and to shift the primary focus from start-up to established firms with growth potential. In this paper the author examines the provision of business support services available through BL. She reviews the underlying concepts of BL, the associated debates surrounding the initiative, and then presents new survey evidence from BLs on their target market, innovation, and charging strategy. It is found that: (1) the markets are being shifted from the desired targets of larger growth firms towards smaller firms; (2) personal business advisers (PBAs) are being relied on as the main method by which BLs identify potential growth firms; (3) the development of new local services is a low priority for BLs at this stage in their development; and (4) there is an inherent unwillingness to charge for services. The author concludes that the effect of the Department of Trade and Industry's intervention has been to ‘nationalise’ the system of business support. This has had a desirable effect of increasing the level of service availability and service quality, but has also had the effect of reducing local diversity.

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References

1995Understanding the small business sector 1991GENDER AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: DETERMINANTS OF SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS.1971Small firms : report of the Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms 1994Entrepreneurial characteristics and the size of the new firm: A model and an econometric test 1993The Impact of Government-Assisted Management Training and Development on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Britain

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2008SME Policy Support in Britain since the 1990s: What have We Learnt?2003Changing Use of External Business Advice and Government Supports by SMEs in the 1990s 2014Internationalization and Innovation as Resources for SME Growth in Foreign Markets 2007Expectations‐based evaluation of SME advice and consultancy: an example of business link services 2001Government advice networks for SMEs: an assessment of the influence of local context on Business Link use, impact and satisfaction 2009The implications of public sector small business advisers becoming strategic sounding boards: England and Scotland compared 2005What works, and why, in business services provision for SME: insights from evolutionary theory

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