A government programme that tested different ways to help small businesses improve their management and productivity has generated a rare trove of experimental data, and this project will mine it for lessons that could reshape how business support is designed and evaluated across the UK. The core problem is that most evaluations of business support programmes rely on weak methods—only a handful of the hundreds of studies reviewed by the What Works Centre for Local Growth used randomised controlled trials. Without rigorous evidence, policymakers cannot reliably tell whether a programme actually works, for whom, and for how long. This project will use data from the Business Basics programme to answer four specific questions: whether the effects of support last beyond the short term, whether cheaper quasi-experimental methods produce biased results, what kinds of businesses actually take up support, and whether early changes in behaviour predict later productivity gains. If successful, the research will give government agencies and local growth bodies a clearer toolkit for evaluating business support. That could mean better-targeted programmes, less public money spent on ineffective interventions, and stronger productivity growth among the small and medium-sized firms that make up the backbone of the UK economy.
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Context The UK faces a persistent challenge with underperforming firms, largely due to weaker management practices in smaller businesses. The Business Basics programme, led by BEIS, aimed to assist SMEs in adopting productivity-enhancing technologies and management practices. From 2018 to 2022, it funded 32 projects involving nearly 3,500 SMEs at a cost of £6.4 million, including 17 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). Experimental approaches to business support are rare; a 2016 review by the UK’s What Works Centre for Local Growth found only four RCTs out of 700 evaluations of business advice. Business Basics offers a unique opportunity to learn about the design, delivery, and evaluation of small business support through experimental data. This project uses this data to tackle key challenges in business support evaluations: a) assessing longer-term effectiveness, b) identifying biases in quasi-experimental evaluations, c) profiling business support participants d) validating interim outcomes. These insights can inform better evaluation methodologies, improve policymaking, and enhance the targeting of business support, ultimate contributing to stronger outcomes. Challenge Policymakers and researchers face a consistent challenge in robustly evaluating the impact of business support (Dalziel, 2018; Novelli & Spina, 2024). Methodological challenges include impact attribution over long timelines, accounting for unobserved business characteristics, and selecting appropriate interim evaluation metrics. Practical challenges include low take-up of support, as seen in the Government’s 'Help-to-Grow: Digital' programme (BEIS, 2023). We propose exploring the longer-term impacts of Business Basics trials, the merits of RCTs versus quasi-experimental approaches, the value of interim behavioural changes as indicators of longer-term impact, and characteristics of businesses likely to seek support. With 3-5 years since trials were conducted, we can now explore longer-term productivity and growth effects (Drews and Hart, 2015) and wider methodological and practical learnings from the trials. This analysis offers a profound opportunity for robust insights on small business support, and is timely given the increasing need for robust assessments of longer-term effectiveness of business support, especially in light of recent economic shifts and growing demand for evidence-based policymaking (DBT, 2024). Aims and Objectives This research is structured around four research objectives: Assessing the longer-term impacts of the Business Basics programme Identifying potential selection biases in quasi-experimental approaches evaluation approaches compared to RCTs; this advances research methodology in this field. Examining the characteristics of participating businesses to assess the determinants of take-up and generalizability of outcomes. Determining whether interim evaluation outcomes predict future productivity. Potential Applications and Benefits This research can influence research and policy in business development by providing actionable insights into: Longer-term effectiveness of management and digital training programmes Business characteristics and openness to different interventions, informing better-targeted support. Factors (typically unobserved, e.g., motivational) that complicate robust evaluation. This can inform data collection and improve the quality of matching in future quasi-experimental evaluations. Validity and reliability of RCTs versus quasi-experimental techniques, guiding future research methodologies and policy decisions. Usefulness of interim outcome measures in evaluating interventions, which can inform policy design. Ultimately, the research aims to enhance understanding of effective business support in the UK and guide the design of targeted interventions to strengthen the UK's business support system. The research will inform (i) enhanced accuracy in measuring the impact of business support programmes (ii) an understanding of the types of business likely to access business support, exploring implications for targeted support and interpreting evaluation outcomes.
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