Supporting the Business Response to COVID-19: Survey on Technology Adoption

该研究项目建立了技术采用的证据基础，并研究了政府如何在危机时期最好地支持英国的企业，特别是中小企业（SME）。该项目将与英国工业联合会（CBI）合作，设计并对英国各地的企业进行新的调查，以了解企业为应对COVID-19危机，在多大程度上引入了在正常情况下被认为是“提高生产力”的新技术或组织实践。它将力求从企业自身的角度了解这种创新的驱动因素和影响、企业对这些因素的看法以及不同企业支持政策的相对有效性。通过一年后的后续调查（并与二级数据源相关联），我们将研究这种创新是否会持续到更长时间，它对企业生存、绩效、就业和工人生产率的影响;以及政府政策如何促进生产率提高变化的持续性进入复苏阶段。第一个交付成果将是一份总结数据的报告，包括按部门、区域和公司类型对异质性的分析。第二项交付成果将是一份报告，总结初步调查和后续调查的结果。在这些定制的商业调查中与英国工业联合会合作，将有助于就产品和流程创新、创新的推动因素和障碍以及企业对复苏潜在政策杠杆的看法提出相关和翔实的问题。该项目将寻求为企业支持政策提供信息，使企业能够生存、适应和摆脱当前的危机。

This research project builds the evidence base on technology adoption, and examines how government can best support businesses, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), in the UK at a time of crisis. Working in collaboration with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), this project will design and undertake a new survey of businesses across the UK to shed light on the extent to which, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, businesses have introduced new technologies or organisational practices that are considered "productivity enhancing" in normal times. It will seek to understand the drivers and impacts of such innovation, business perceptions on these, and the relative effectiveness of different business support policies from the perspectives of businesses themselves. Via a follow-up survey one year on (and linking to secondary data sources), we will examine whether such innovation persists into the longer run, its impact on firm survival, performance, employment and worker productivity; and how government policy might promote the persistence of productivity enhancing changes into the recovery phase. The first deliverable will be a report summarising the data, including analysis of heterogeneity by sector, region and firm type. The second deliverable will be a report summarising the findings of the combined initial and follow on surveys. Collaborating with the CBI in these bespoke business surveys will help to create relevant and informative questions on product and process innovation, enablers and barriers to innovation, and business views on potential policy levers for the recovery. The project will seek to inform business support policies to enable firms to survive, adapt and grow out of the current crisis.