Northern Ireland's ability to attract and retain globally competitive FDI has always been a major challenge to industrial policy, and surprisingly little is known about the capacity of the economy to generate sufficient growth to sustain living standards in the absence of this external driver. The aim of this research project is to address this gap in our knowledge by analysing the growth rates of surviving cohorts of NI-owned small and medium-sized businesses using linked data for the last decade from a range of establishment/firm-level datasets (COE; ABI; R&D Survey; Sales and Exports Survey; CIS4; D&B Marketing Database; INI Client database). In particular we will be examining the role of public policy in stimulating growth rates, and the recently competed evaluation of the operation of SFA in Northern Ireland (1998-2006) will provide information on almost 600 NI-owned businesses (assisted and non-assisted).

Researchers
Mark Hart, Karen Bonner

Completed Work

Paths to understanding the Relationship between Regulation and Small Firm Growth

Mixing the Grant Cocktail: Towards an Understanding of the Outcomes of Financial Support to Small Firms