ERC Transition Funding - Supporting recovery, enabling transition

中小型企业（SMEs）提供了英国私营部门就业的60% (BEIS, 2020)，年轻和规模庞大的新公司创造了所有新工作的不成比例的份额（Anyadike-Danes和Hart， 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偏远地区的包容性增长也很重要。重建经济实力也为实施政策创造了机会，使中小企业转向净零排放，强调在低碳技术和商业模式方面的创新和投资。我们的研究和影响建议是在与政策制定者协商后制定的，旨在通过一项雄心勃勃的研究、知识管理和参与计划，支持这些国家政策重点——重建增长、净零和升级。先前的研究表明，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Hart， 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（Frese et al., 2016; Gras et al., 2020; Shepherd & Patzelt, 2011）。我们未来的研究计划建立在这些观察的基础上，同时认识到解决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”-涉及优先级之间的潜在权衡，并增加决策复杂性（Belz & Binder, 2017）。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），并且在创业时感受到更大的财务、行政和信息障碍（Hoogendoorn et al., 2019）。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权衡。为了应对这些挑战，我们的研究计划被分为四个工作包，这些工作包反映了政策制定的关键领域——重建实力、国际竞争力和实现双重转型。WP1由阿斯顿大学（Aston）的马克•哈特（Mark Hart）教授领导，专注于建立强大而有弹性的企业，重点关注纵向数据分析和企业家的多样性。由Kevin Mole博士（华威大学）领导的WP 2重点关注创新的推动因素，特别关注支持数字化和净零转型的国家和地方政策。WP3由Stephen Roper教授（华威大学）领导，专注于公司内部创新的实施，专注于中小企业的低碳和数字化创新及其与业务绩效的关系。WP4由杜军教授（阿斯顿大学）领导，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世界工作会议联系在一起：关注与政策相关的研究主题并制定可行的建议；关注中小企业增长和生产率的空间差异；以及，在中小企业人口的不同子群体中，业绩驱动因素之间的明显区别（即，按公司类型、地点和所有者-管理团队的特征-后者允许分析多样性和包容性）。该研究方案将由一项知识管理和参与活动方案加以补充，该方案在申请支助的案例中概述。

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.