Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Small businesses that seek and obtain strategic business advice are more likely to thrive and grow. Advice can increase productivity, drive sales and improve the chance of survival in tough economic times. Yet as many as three in every ten small businesses in the UK may have an unmet need for business advice . And to date, available evidence does not establish a causal link between business advice and higher growth for small businesses. The Growth Vouchers programme is a pioneering government research project that aims to make it easier for small businesses to access expert advice to help them grow and test which types of business advice are most effective. The Growth Vouchers programme will run until March 2015 to attract around 20,000 small businesses that do not normally use advice. Vouchers worth up to £2,000 each will be given to a majority of the small businesses who take part to help them pay for advice. This programme will operate as a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), which will enable the government to obtain a robust assessment of the impact of different types of advice on participating businesses. RCTs are widely regarded as the gold standard for empirical research and are used extensively in medicine and international development. This is the first time that an RCT has been run on this scale to explore what business advice works best. The Growth Vouchers programme will produce real and comprehensive evidence, while providing benefits for the businesses who take part. This evidence will be used to inform future policy.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/282916/bis-14-599-growth-vouchers-programme-trial-protocol-full.pdf Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Do businesses that are given a Growth Voucher perform better or worse than those not given one? Do businesses assessed online perform better or worse than those assessed face to face? Which of the five themes of subsidised advice creates the greatest return? Sample Trial population and sample selection The programme is open to businesses based in England, more than one year old and with less than 50 employees, that have not paid for external strategic advice in the last three years. Businesses can apply over an online application process. Allocation of the voucher will be random, no assessment of business viability will be made. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Not yet available. Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description After applying and passing eligibility screening, businesses are randomly allocated to receive face-to-face or online business assessments. Following this, 75% of the companies are randomly selected to receive a Growth Voucher which offers them up to £2,000 to spend on strategic business advice in one of five specified areas. Companies must match-fund 50% of the voucher value. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Brief questionnaire given at online application stage. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Primarily: Firm turnover and number of employees. But also: capability and confidence, growth orientation, business planning, growth journey.</p> Results <p>Not yet available.</p> Intervention costs Maximum of £2,000 per voucher. Cost benefit ratio Reference Sanders, M. 2015. 'Growth Vouchers Programme'. Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. GOV.UK. Citation for use in academic references
