Exploring Enterprise

Professor Mark Hart of the Enterprise Research Centre speaks with Liz Barclay to explain why micro-businesses are far more important to the UK economy than policymakers recognise. Drawing on decades of research, he reveals how these smallest firms quietly drive job creation, sustain local economies and contribute billions in long-term growth, despite often being overlooked in favour of “scale-ups”...

In this episode, Zofia Bajorek, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, Petra Wilton, Director of Policy and External Affairs at the Chartered Management Institute and Dr Maria Wishart, Research Fellow at the ERC, speak to Professor Mark Hart on the role of line managers in business performance.  The discussion covers a range of themes, including the complexity of the line...

In this episode, Professor Stephen Roper is joined by Dr Maria Wishart, Research Fellow, at the ERC, Andrew Griffiths, Director of Policy and Corporate Development at PlanetMark, and Michael Martin, Head of Net Zero and Advice Team, Wenta. We revisit a theme we covered in one of our early podcasts back in 2021 – namely, SMEs and net zero adoption, reflecting on how SME behaviours and attitudes hav...

Episode 21 of Exploring Enterprise, the podcast series from the Enterprise Research Centre.  Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director at the ERC is  joined by David Taylor, Founder and Managing Director of the business DNAsix as well as being as a business adviser, coach and author, alongside Jodi Fair, who is Programme Manager at Solent Business and Skills Solutions, a free business support service d...

Professor Stephen Roper, Director of the ERC is  joined by William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce; Jun Du , Director of Centre for Business Prosperity (CBP) and Professor of Economics at Aston Business School; and Eugenie Golubova, Research Fellow and my colleague at the ERC reflecting on the range of issues associated with small businesses and exporting.

Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director of the ERC is joined by Emily Whitehead, business coach and consultant, and Founder of Simply Great Britain, and Professor Andrew Henley, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Economics at Cardiff Business School reflecting on the world of microbusinesses or micro-enterprises, an under-researched and perhaps misunderstood part of the business population, in spite o...

For the 18th episode of Exploring Enterprise, the podcast series from the Enterprise Research Centre, Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director of the ERC is joined by Manny Athwal who is an entrepreneur and the founder and current CEO of the School of Coding, and Ian McLaughlan, who is Director of Business Growth West Midlands, a new business support service to reflect on the important theme of how to...

Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director at the ERC,is joined by Richard Jeffery, National Director of GC Business, based in Manchester, and Jane Galsworthy, Managing Director of Oxford Innovation Advice, and also the Chair of the ERC’s Steering Group. discussing a big question for all those running or providing support to small businesses – what is the future of business support?  

Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director of the ERC, is  joined by Dr Lorna Treanor, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Nottingham, and Fiona Morrill, Senior Manager at the British Business Bank to discuss and reflect on the  theme of ‘inclusive entrepreneurship’. What is meant by Inclusive Entrepreneurship and why is it important?

Professor Stephen Roper, Director of the ERC, is  joined by Amber Burridge, Head of Fraud Intelligence at Cifas, Alan Bryce, Acting Head of the Fraud Advisory Panel, and Kristina Grinkina , Policy Adviser with responsibility for business crime at the Federation of Small Businesses reflecting on an important theme which has become a growing concern for SMEs over recent years – business crime, and p...

Professor Mark Hart, Deputy Director at the ERC is  joined by Fiona Graham, Director of External Affairs and Policy at the Institute for Family Business, Craig Beaumont,  Chief of External Affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, and Alex Veitch Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce  reflecting on the implications of last months’ Autumn Statement for SMEs...

In this episode, Stephen Roper is joined by Professor Ute Stephan, Professor of Entrepreneurship at King's College London, Arosha Brouwer Co-Founder and CEO at Quan, a digital well-being and team performance platform, and Jason Jaspal, Assistant Director of Business Development at the UK mental health charity Samaritans, for a discussion on the mental wellbeing of entrepreneurs and SME leaders. If...

In this episode, Professor Mark Hart is joined by Liz Barclay, the UK’s Small Business Commissioner, James Blackman, Managing Partner at Cocoonfxmedia, and Nicholas Hardman Team Manager at Business Debtline, to reflect on the financial challenges facing small businesses. If you are affected by the issues discussed in this podcast, Business Debtline provides free debt advice over the phone and onli...

In the final episode of this series ERC Director Stephen Roper is joined by by Jill Pay, Chair of The Gender Index; Yvonne Greeves, Director of Women in Business at the NatWest Group; and Julie Kapsalis, Chair of Coast to Capital LEP  reflecting on the important theme of ‘women and enterprise’.

In this episode of the Exploring Enterprise podcast series from the Enterprise Research Centre, Mark Hart is joined by Philip King, previously the Small Business Commissioner and responsible for advising small businesses on their trading relationships and Ant Persse, Chief Executive of Optimum Finance, a specialist invoice finance company  and newly established Saltare Technologies Limited, a Fint...

For  the ninth edpisode of ‘Exploring Enterprise’, the podcast series from the Enterprise Research Centre  Professor Stephen Roper, Director at the ERC was  joined by  Dr Anastasia Ri, Research Fellow at the ERC; Mark Swift, Head of the SME Group at the Warwick Manufacturing Group, based at Warwick University; and Darren Joint, Managing Director of Viking Signs Ltd, a digital on-demand sign manufa...

In this episode Mark Hart, Deputy Director of the ERC is  joined by Lucy Armstrong, CEO of The Alchemists – an organisation which works with high growth businesses to accelerate their development;  Robert Wapshott, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Nottingham University Business School and  Oliver Mallett, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stirling University  reflecting on so...

In the 7th episode of Exploring Enterprise, Stephen Roper, Director of the ERC, is joined by Dr Barbara Tocco, Centre Manager and Senior Research Associate based at Newcastle University, and Professor Tom MacMillan Deputy Director at NICRE based at the Royal Agricultural University in Gloucestershire and Chris Jewitt, Founder and CEO of community interest company Food and Drink North East discussi...

In Episode 6, Stephen Roper is joined by the team from the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (or NICRE), to discuss how rural businesses have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic and what the future might hold for them. The participants are Professor Jeremy Phillipson, Director of NICRE based at Newcastle University, Professor Janet Dwyer, NICRE co-Director based at the University of G...

In episode 5, ERC Director Professor Stephen Roper is joined by Dr Anastasia Ri, Research Fellow at the ERC; Jonathan Withey, Head of Business Development and Planet Mark; and Catherine Westoby, Senior Policy Adviser, Public Behaviour Change on Net Zero at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to discuss SMEs and the Net Zero challenge.

In this episode of our podcast series Vicki Belt is joined by Dr Maria Wishart, Research Fellow at the ERC; Dr Carla Toro, Associate Professor Behavioural and Wellbeing Sciences at the University of Warwick; Sean Russell, Co-Investigator of the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot, Coventry University; and Tara Sankar, HR and mental health lead at Tamworth-based SME, Crystal Specialist Finance.

In this episode ERC’s Vicki Belt is joined by Stephen Roper, Director of the ERC,  Jane Galsworthy, Managing Director of Oxford Innovation Services and Alex Toft, Head of Minerva Business Angels to discuss how to support innovative start-up businesses.

Joining us for the second episode of Exploring Enterprise are Colin Bell, Business and Sector Growth Director, North East LEP, and Richard Jeffery, National Director of Growth Company Business to discuss  local growth and ‘levelling up’ , sharing their perspectives on what it means and the main challenges in achieving it in North East England and Manchester.

In the first episode of our brand new podcast " Exploring Enterprise"  Lee Hopley is joined by Professor Stephen Roper, Director of the ERC, and Professor Mark Hart and Dr Vicki Belt, Deputy Directors at the ERC discussing  the ERC’s research into small and medium-sized enterprises, and particularly about what they have found out about how businesses have fared over the past year during the COVID-...