Professor wins funding for study of small business finance

Professor Ross Brown from the School of Management has won research funding from the ESRC and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).  

The project will entail close examination of the BEIS funded Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) which is the main survey of small businesses in the UK. Professor Brown will work with Professor Marc Cowling from the University of Derby on the study, the main objective of which is to examine the uneven spatial nature and impact of funding difficulties within UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  

The issues to be addressed play to the UK Government's important 'levelling up' agenda, as past research has shown that there can be large inter-regional disparities in accessing finance in SMEs across different UK regions.  

Professor Brown says: "This is an important piece of policy-focused research because regional funding gaps play a pivotal role in preventing access to finance and are a crucial obstacle preventing some peripheral regions from levelling up".