Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain - 30th anniversary issue

This special issue marks a particular milestone: it is now three decades since the Quarterly Survey of Small Business in Britain began the task of monitoring emerging trends and examining the experiences and opinions of business owners and managers. In this report, we have assembled contributions from a variety of sources with the following aims: to shed some new light on this important period in the history of small firms’ research in the UK; to explore the main changes and continuities in the small firms landscape over this extended period; and lastly, to draw some lessons for future work in this important research field. The remainder of the report comprises three parts: Section 2 sets out the historical background to the launch of the Quarterly Survey in 1984. This includes an account of the highly influential Bolton Committee Report of 1971, drafted by John Bolton’s biographer, and personal accounts from two small business specialists who were directly involved in establishing the Quarterly Survey. Section 3 opens with a small selection of the survey’s research topics and findings over the last 30 years. This is followed by a review of the technical challenges of conducting survey-based research, particularly when the work extends over such a long period, and an assessment of the Quarterly Survey’s contribution to the SME research and policy communities. We also hear from the editor in chief of the International Small Business Journal, which was also established in the early 1980s, on the challenges of establishing an academic publication that addresses the issues faced by smaller firms. In Section 4, some of our longest-serving panel respondents discuss the trends and changes that their businesses have faced over this period and comment on the prospects for 2015. They also reflect on the experience of completing all of those survey questionnaires. Section 5 offers some brief concluding remarks and comments on possible future directions for research of this kind

Financing SME growth in the UK: meeting the challenges after the global financial crisis

In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis new forms of SME finance are emerging in the place of traditional banking and equity finance sources. This Special Issue has its origins in a conference organised in June 2014 by the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) at Middlesex University Business School, where all but the final two papers were presented. The Conference was designed to provide a timely forum for leading academics, practitioners and policy makers to disseminate current research and practitioner knowledge exploring finance gaps and how best to address the financing needs of small high growth potential businesses

Crop Updates 2009 - Cereals

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors: PLENARY 1. Building soil carbon for productivity and implications for carbon accounting, Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, SA 2. Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference, Doug Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton 3. Four decades of crop sequence trials in Western Australia, Mark Seymour,Department of Agriculture and Food BREAK CROPS 4. 2008 Break Crops survey Report, Paul Carmody,Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food 5. Attitudes of Western Australian wheatbelt growers to ‘Break Crops’, Paul Carmody and Ian Pritchard, Development Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food 6. The value of organic nitrogen from lupins, Alan Meldrum, Pulse Australia 7.The area of break crops on farm: What farmers are doing compared to estimates based on maximising profit, Michael Robertson and Roger Lawes,CSIRO Floreat, Rob Sands,FARMANCO Farm Consultants, Peter White,Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Felicity Byrne and Andrew Bathgate,Farming Systems Analysis CROP SPECIFIC Breeding 8. Identification of WALAB2014 as a potential albus lupin variety for northern agricultural region of Western Australia, Kedar Adhikari, Department of Agriculture and Food 9. Enhancement of black spot resistance in field pea, Kedar Adhikari, Tanveer Khan, Stuart Morgan and Alan Harris, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. Desi chickpea breeding: Evaluation of advanced line, Khan, TN1, Harris, A1, Gaur, P2, Siddique, KHM3, Clarke, H4, Turner, NC4, MacLeod, W1, Morgan, S1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), 3The University of Western Australia, 4Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 11. Pulse Breeding Australia-Australian Field Pea Improvement Program (AFPIP), Ian Pritchard1, Chris Veitch1, Stuart Morgan1, Alan Harris1 and Tony Leonforte 2 1 Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2 Department off Primary Industries, Victoria Disease 12. Interaction between wheat varieties and fungicides to control stripe rust for grain and quality, Kith Jayasena, Geoff Thomas, Rob Loughman, Kazue Tanaka and Bill MacLeod, Department of Agriculture and Food 13. Findings of canola disease survey 2008 and its implications for better disease management in 2009, Ravjit Khangura, WJ MacLeod, P White, P Carmody and M Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 14. Combating wheat leaf diseases using genome sequencing and functional genomics, Richard Oliver, Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University 15. Distribution and survival of wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella), vector of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, in the WA grainbelt during 2008, Dusty Severtson, Peter Mangano, John Botha and Brenda Coutts, Department of Agriculture and Food 16. Partial resistance to Stagonspora (Septoria) Partial resistance to Stagonospora (Septoria) nodorum blotch and response to fungicide in a severe epidemic scenario, Manisha Shankar1, Richard Oliver2, Kasia Rybak2and Rob Loughman1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University, Western Australia 17. Black pod syndrome in lupins can be reduced by regular insecticide sprays, Peter White and Michael Baker,Department of Agriculture and Food Variety performance 18. Incorporating new herbicide tolerant juncea canola into low rainfall cropping systems in Western Australia, Mohammad Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 19. Varietal differences in germ end staining of barley, Andrea Hills,Department of Agriculture and Food 20. Wheat variety performance in the Central Agricultural Region in 2008, Shahajahan Miyan, Department of Agriculture and Food 21. Barley variety identification using DNA fingerprinting, Peter Portmann, Agriconnect, Perth WA Dr Nicole Rice, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW Prof Robert Henry, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 22. Forecast disease resistance profile for the Western Australian barley crop over the next three years, Jeff J. Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food 23. Malting barley varieties differ in their flowering date and their response to changes in sowing date, BH Paynter and Jeff J. Russell,Department of Agriculture and Food 24. Market development for new barley varieties, Linda Price,Barley Australia 25. Response of wheat varieties to sowing time at Mt Barker, Katanning and Newdegate in 2008, Brenda Shackley and Vicki Scanlan,Department of Agriculture and Food 26. Flowering dates of wheat varieties in 2008 at three locations in Western Australia, Darshan Sharma, Brenda Shackley and Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Food 27. Agronomic responses of new wheat varieties in the norther agricultural region in 2008, Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Foo

Data integration in eHealth: a domain/disease specific roadmap

The paper documents a series of data integration workshops held in 2006 at the UK National e-Science Centre, summarizing a range of the problem/solution scenarios in multi-site and multi-scale data integration with six HealthGrid projects using schizophrenia as a domain-specific test case. It outlines emerging strategies, recommendations and objectives for collaboration on shared ontology-building and harmonization of data for multi-site trials in this domain

Approaches to measuring the scale of the social enterprise sector in the UK

With growing interest in social enterprise in the UK, evidence on the scale of their activity is required to show their contribution to the economy. The figure of 62,000 social enterprises has been regularly based on a minimum three year rolling average of the Annual Small Business Survey between 2005 and 2007. In this paper we show that different surveys have been based upon samples drawn from widely disparate populations. The Annual Small Business Survey is shown to be dominated by private enterprises (Companies Limited by Share, Partnerships and Sole Proprietors) while other surveys such as the National Survey of Third Sector Organisations, have only looked at particular elements of civil society. By understanding the origins of each source of data, a better evidence base can be developed that draws on the different data sources. While there is still on-going debate about the definitions of social enterprise, careful presentation of data sources can allow those using the data to be clearer about what they are including or excluding. We show how different definitions of social enterprise result in widely differing estimations of the population. Estimations of social enterprise activity may be more reliable as the definitions are more consistently applied. This working paper aims to present data and seeks feedback from the social enterprise community and researchers as part of improving the evidence base

Home based business and economic growth: lifestyle businesses or growth generators?

Home based businesses (HBBs) have been a growing phenomenon during the last decade in the UK but remain largely “invisible businesses”. This growth in home based business activity raises important questions as to how it relates to existing economic growth processes as well as the extent to which it provides the basis for alternative development paths. Critical to answering such questions is a better understanding of the motivations and objectives of home based entrepreneurs.This paper explores how the growth of home based business interrelates with the economic growth process through an examination of entrepreneurial motivations. The paper uses data from the UK SME omnibus survey and the Open University quarterly small business SME survey panel to provide original results on the entrepreneurial motivations and goals of surveyed HBBs in relation to other UK SMEs. Results presented not only demonstrate important differences in the motivations of HBBs to other SMEs, but also indicate the importance of distinguishing the differing trajectories of HBBs in the growth process. These range from dynamic HBBs that operate in higher growth sectors through to lifestyle businesses which follow a different type of growth model where profit and sales are supplanted (not fully replaced) by personal/social values, control. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these important differences for the rationale and development of policy in relation to supporting HBB activity

Recommended summary plan for emergency care and treatment : ReSPECT a mixed-methods study

Background Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions have been widely criticised. The Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) process was developed to facilitate shared decisions between patients and clinicians in relation to emergency treatments, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Objective To explore how, when and why ReSPECT plans are made and what effects the plans have on patient outcomes. Design A mixed-methods evaluation, comprising (1) a qualitative study of ReSPECT decision-making processes, (2) an interrupted time series examining process and survival outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest and (3) a retrospective observational study examining factors associated with ReSPECT recommendations and patient outcomes. Setting NHS acute hospitals and primary care and community services in England (2017–2020). Participants Hospital doctors, general practitioners, nurses, patients and families. Data sources The following sources were used: (1) observations of ReSPECT conversations at six hospitals and conversations with clinicians, patient, families and general practitioners, (2) survey and freedom of information data from hospitals participating in the National Cardiac Arrest Audit and (3) a review of inpatient medical records, ReSPECT forms and NHS Safety Thermometer data. Results By December 2019, the ReSPECT process was being used in 40 of 186 (22%) acute hospitals. In total, 792 of 3439 (23%) inpatients, usually those identified at risk of deterioration, had a ReSPECT form. Involvement of the patient and/or family was recorded on 513 of 706 (73%) ReSPECT forms reviewed. Clinicians said that lack of time prevented more conversations. Observed conversations focused on resuscitation, but also included other treatments and the patient’s values and preferences. Conversation types included open-ended conversations, with clinicians actively eliciting the patients’ wishes and preferences, a persuasive approach, swaying the conversation towards a decision aligned with medical opinion, and simply informing the patient/relative about a medical decision that had already been made. The frequency of harms reported on the NHS Safety Thermometer was similar among patients with or without a ReSPECT form. Hospital doctors and general practitioners gave different views on the purpose of the ReSPECT process and the type of recommendations they would record. Limitations The research was undertaken within the first 2 years following the implementation of ReSPECT. Local policies meant that doctors led these conversations. Most patients were seriously ill, which limited opportunities for interviews. Incomplete adoption of the ReSPECT process and problems associated with the NHS Safety Thermometer tool affected the evaluation on clinical outcomes. Conclusions Patients and families were involved in most ReSPECT conversations. Conversations focused on resuscitation, but also included other emergency treatments. Respect for patient autonomy and duty to protect from harm informed clinicians’ approach to varying degrees, depending on the clinical situation and their views of ReSPECT as a shared decision-making process. The complexity of these conversations and the clinical, emotional and organisational barriers observed suggest that a nuanced and multifaceted approach will be necessary to support good ReSPECT processes. Future work Further research is needed to understand the advantages and disadvantages to the adoption of a national emergency care and treatment plan system, the most effective national and local implementation approaches, and whether or not shared decision-making approaches in the context of emergency care and treatment plans could further enhance patient and family engagement. Study registration This study is registered as ISRCTN11112933. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme and will be published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research; Vol. 10, No. 40. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

Data Integration in eHealth: A Domain/Disease Specific Roadmap

The paper documents a series of data integration workshops held in 2006 at the UK National e-Science Centre, summarizing a range of the problem/solution scenarios in multi-site and multi-scale data integration with six HealthGrid projects using schizophrenia as a domain-specific test case. It outlines emerging strategies, recommendations and objectives for collaboration on shared ontology-building and harmonization of data for multi-site trials in this domain.</p