IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxecpp/v54y2002i2p334-365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance

Author

Listed:
  • Colin Wren

Abstract

The paper applies robust econometric techniques to assess the impact of publicly-provided subsidised 'soft' business support on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It considers the assistance for consultancy advice provided towards marketing under the UK Enterprise Initiative, looking at its effect on sales turnover, employment and survival, and making explicit allowance for selection effects. It is found that the policy has no impact on the survival of smaller SMEs, and that it is most effective in the mid-range SMEs, where it raises survival rates by about 4% over the longer run and growth rates in surviving firms by up to 10% per annum. Overall, the scheme has a substantial impact, but the paper draws attention to the possible displacement effects. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin Wren, 2002. "Evaluating the effect of soft business support upon small firm performance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 334-365, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:54:y:2002:i:2:p:334-365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mata, Jose & Portugal, Pedro, 1994. "Life Duration of New Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 227-245, September.
    2. Dolton, Peter J & Makepeace, Gerald H & Treble, John G, 1994. "The Youth Training Scheme and the School-to-Work Transition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 629-657, October.
    3. Goldberger, Arthur S, 1972. "Structural Equation Methods in the Social Sciences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(6), pages 979-1001, November.
    4. Heckman, J.J. & Hotz, V.J., 1988. "Choosing Among Alternative Nonexperimental Methods For Estimating The Impact Of Social Programs: The Case Of Manpower Training," University of Chicago - Economics Research Center 88-12, Chicago - Economics Research Center.
    5. Cressy, Robert, 1996. "Are Business Startups Debt-Rationed?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1253-1270, September.
    6. Timothy Dunne & Mark J. Roberts & Larry Samuelson, 1989. "The Growth and Failure of U. S. Manufacturing Plants," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 104(4), pages 671-698.
    7. P N O'Farrell & R Crouchley, 1987. "Manufacturing-plant closures: a dynamic survival model," Environment and Planning A, Pion Ltd, London, vol. 19(3), pages 313-329, March.
    8. P N O'Farrell & R Crouchley, 1987. "Manufacturing-Plant Closures: A Dynamic Survival Model," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 19(3), pages 313-329, March.
    9. O'Higgins, Niall, 1994. "YTS, Employment, and Sample Selection Bias," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 605-628, October.
    10. Venetoklis, Takis, 1999. "Process Evaluation of Business Subsidies in Finland. A Quantitative Approach," Research Reports 58, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    11. McCloughan, Patrick & Stone, Ian, 1998. "Life duration of foreign multinational subsidiaries: Evidence from UK northern manufacturing industry 1970-93," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 719-747, November.
    12. McCloughan, Patrick, 1995. "Simulation of Concentration Development from Modified Gibrat Growth-Entry-Exit Processes," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 405-433, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:54:y:2002:i:2:p:334-365. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Oxford University Press) or (Christopher F. Baum). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oep .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.