ERC Transition Funding - Supporting recovery, enabling transition

中小企业（SME）提供了英国私营部门就业的60%（BEIS，2020），年轻和扩大规模的新公司创造了所有新工作岗位的不成比例的份额（Anyadike-Danes和哈特，2017，2018）。因此，支持创业和中小企业的有效政策对于在2021年及以后维持就业和重建繁荣至关重要。支持商业活力对于维持英国较贫穷和较偏远地区的包容性增长也很重要。重建经济实力也创造了实施政策的机会，使中小企业转向净零排放，强调低碳技术和商业模式的创新和投资。我们的研究和影响提案-与政策制定者协商制定-旨在通过雄心勃勃的研究，知识管理和参与计划支持这些国家政策优先事项-重建增长，净零和升级。以前的研究表明，新的和年轻的公司负责一个国家的大部分就业创造和创新，并最终推动增长和繁荣（Anyadike-Danes和哈特，2018）。创业也被认为是社会应对气候变化和不平等等可持续性挑战的关键途径（Freese et al.，2016; Gras等人，2020; Shepherd & Patzelt，2011）。我们未来的研究计划建立在这些观察的基础上，同时认识到应对社会和环境挑战以及创造经济价值的可持续商业模式-一种“三重底线方法”-涉及优先事项之间的潜在权衡，并增加决策的复杂性（贝尔茨和宾德，2017年）。事实上，与普通企业家相比，可持续企业家往往面临更大的挑战（Pinkse & Groot，2015），并认为创办企业面临更大的财务、行政和信息障碍（Hoogendoorn等人，2019年）。旨在支持中小企业实现净零排放的政策措施也面临着类似的复杂性和潜在的取舍。为反映这些挑战，我们的研究计划分为四个工作包，反映政策发展的关键领域-重建实力，国际竞争力和促进双重过渡。工作包1由Mark哈特教授（阿斯顿）领导，专注于建立强大和有弹性的企业，重点是纵向数据分析和企业家的多样性。WP 2由Kevin Mole博士（沃里克）领导，重点关注创新的推动因素，特别关注支持数字和净零过渡的国家和地方政策。由沃里克教授（Prof. Stephen罗珀）领导的第三工作组专注于公司内部的创新实施，重点关注中小企业的低碳和数字创新及其与业务绩效的关系。由杜军教授（阿斯顿）领导的第四工作组，专注于中小企业国际化、与增长和生产力的关系，以及不同地区国际参与程度的影响。三个横向主题将每个工作方案联系在一起：侧重于与政策有关的研究专题和制定可采取行动的建议;关注中小企业增长和生产力的空间差异;明确区分中小企业人口中不同分组的业绩驱动因素（即，研究方案将得到支持案例中概述的知识管理和参与活动方案的补充。

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) provide 60 per cent of UK private sector employment (BEIS, 2020) and young and scaling new firms create a disproportionate share of all new jobs (Anyadike-Danes and Hart, 2017, 2018). Effective policy to support entrepreneurship and SMEs will therefore be critical to sustaining employment and rebuilding prosperity in 2021 and beyond. Supporting business dynamism will also be important for maintaining inclusive growth in poorer and more remote parts of the UK. Rebuilding strength in the economy also creates opportunities to implement policies to pivot SMEs towards net zero, emphasising innovation and investment in low carbon technologies and business models. Our research and impact proposals - developed in consultation with policy makers - aim to support these national policy priorities - rebuilding growth, net zero and levelling-up - through an ambitious programme of research, knowledge curation and engagement. Previous research has shown that new and young firms are responsible for most of the job creation and innovation in a country and ultimately drive growth and prosperity (Anyadike-Danes and Hart, 2018). Entrepreneurship has also been proposed as a key route thorough which societies can combat sustainability challenges such as climate change and inequalities (Frese et al., 2016; Gras et al., 2020; Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011). Our future research programme builds on these observations while recognising that sustainable business models which address social and environmental challenges as well as creating economic value - a 'triple bottom line approach' - involve potential trade-offs between priorities and increases decision-making complexity (Belz & Binder, 2017). Indeed, sustainable entrepreneurs tend to face greater challenges (Pinkse & Groot, 2015) and perceive greater financial, administrative and information-based barriers to starting their ventures than regular entrepreneurs (Hoogendoorn et al., 2019). Policy measures designed to support SMEs' moves towards net zero face similar complexity and potential trade-offs. Reflecting these challenges, our research programme is organised into four Work Packages which reflect key areas of policy development - rebuilding strength, international competitiveness and enabling the dual transition.WP1, led by Prof Mark Hart (Aston), focuses on building strong and resilient enterprises with a focus on longitudinal data analysis and the diversity of entrepreneurs. WP 2, led Dr Kevin Mole (Warwick) focuses on the enablers of innovation with a specific focus on national and local policy supporting the digital and net zero transitions. WP3, led by Prof Stephen Roper (Warwick) focuses on the implementation of innovation within the firm focusing on low carbon and digital innovation in SMEs and their relationship with business performance. WP4, led by Prof Jun Du (Aston), focuses on SME internationalisation, the relationship to growth and productivity, and the impact of different localities' extent of international engagement. Three horizontal themes link each of the WPs: a focus on policy-relevant research topics and developing actionable recommendations; a concern with spatial disparities in SME growth and productivity; and, a clear differentiation between performance drivers in different sub-groups of the population of SMEs (i.e., by firm type, location and the characteristics of the owner-management team - the latter to permit analysis of diversity and inclusiveness).The research programme will be complemented by a programme of knowledge curation and engagement activities outlined in the case for support.