Business link: Use, satisfaction and comparison with business shop and business connect

Bennett, Robert J.; Robson, Paul

doi:10.1080/01442879908423771

Cited by 38 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Consequently, the data supported the findings of both Moulaert and Todtling's (1995) and Bennett and Robson (1999) relating to an uptake in the usage of external advice and consultancy by businesses.…”

Section: Business Providersupporting

confidence: 84%

Business support in sport: strategy or serendipity?

Bill

Rhoden²

2011

Jrnl of Small Bus Ente Dev

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Purpose -As a generalisation, the sports industry is a multifaceted, complex and diverse industry, perhaps making it difficult to offer business support and advice. This paper aims to identify and analyse, through sport and recreation business owners, their experience of business support and advice. The study can therefore be seen as contributing to related studies by Mole et al. and responding to Pawson and Tilley's request for a more nuanced view of how public-support programmes work. Design/methodology/approach -A qualitative, collective case study design is adopted.

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Section: Business Providersupporting

confidence: 84%

Business support in sport: strategy or serendipity?

Bill

Rhoden²

2011

Jrnl of Small Bus Ente Dev

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“…This may colour their satisfaction and impact assessment. The results here cannot control for this influence, but since most Business Link users have also used many other sources of advice (Bennett and Robson, 1999b;, this is unlikely to have a major effect.…”

Section: Advice Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…There were a number of criticisms of this approach (see Bennett and Robson, 1999b;. The main concern of the DTI was that direct managerial accountability was undermined by the complex structures of many partnerships.…”

Section: Advice Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

SME Policy Support in Britain since the 1990s: What have We Learnt?

Bennett

2008

Environ Plann C Gov Policy

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171

157

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I examine the evolution of British government support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), using results from four waves of survey evidence in 1991, 1997, 2002, and 2004, and comparison with other analyses. Whilst government support is often based on overcoming market failures in the availability or use of supports to SMEs, I argue that successful government intervention is difficult to make effective at realistic cost^benefit ratios. The analysis demonstrates little evidence of market failure in provision or take-up of business support. If a market gap existed in the past, it is no longer apparent. Any systemic market failures that remain can influence only the start-up, very early stage growth, and/or the very smallest single-person businesses. I also find that different modes of delivery by centralised, regionalised, or localised structures have very little influence on market penetration. Decentralisation can increase take-up marginally, but this has been achieved only with tenfold increases in costs and major increases in administrative complexity. There is some marginal but significant benefit of policy delivery being in the hands of market, or near-market, agencies. But for all delivery bodies there is massive variability in use, impact, and satisfaction levels achieved. Finally, a brief analysis of gender differences suggests some significant variations in use of advice from different sources, but that government sources have some of the most adverse use levels for femaleheaded business, and this particularly applies to Business Link. Over the period 1991^2004 there is little to indicate the overwhelming success of government SME support policies, particularly at the level of cost that they now involve.

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“…There were financial targets for fee income (initially of 25 per cent of the total budget for Business Link) with the intention that the BL staff would have an ongoing relationship with the small firm being advised and be partially self-financing. The result was a level of take-up of advice and more intensive counselling similar to the earlier Small Firms Services (SFS) which BL replaced, but with much lower satisfaction levels (60 per cent) on average (compared to 95 per cent in the SFS), and with high variability between areas (satisfaction varying from 20 per cent to 90 per cent; Bennett and Robson, 1999, 2000, 2003a.…”

Section: The Business Link Systemmentioning

confidence: 91%

Expectations‐based evaluation of SME advice and consultancy: an example of business link services

Bennett

2007

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this research is to assess an expectations-based approach to service evaluation by small and medium sized companies (SMEs) of government advice services. These are often criticised for providing what politicians think SMEs need rather than what SMEs want. Little analysis has gone into assessing the expectations of these services. Yet expectations are a crucial datum against which to measure evaluations of the impact and satisfaction with services received. Design/methodology/approach -The author uses new large-scale survey results of the experience of Business Link in England to assess expectations and outcomes. It compares expectations, through open response format questions, with assessments of how far expectations are met, service impact and satisfaction. Outputs are also compared between "hard" (profit, sales, costs) and "soft" (improving the ability to manage). Findings -The results demonstrate a mixture of expectations ranging from specific service wants (in the majority of cases) to a range of softer and quality elements (which include inter alia, the desire for a "neutral" or "external" view). Comparison of the varied expectations with the level of satisfaction and impact shows Business Link to be strongest where the SME client is most focused in what they seek and where the quality expectations are not too demanding. Originality/value -The key implication for Business Link design is that it should focus on the primary aim of specialist advice links to subsidised services, primarily with a skills or other technical focus.

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Business link: Use, satisfaction and comparison with business shop and business connect

Cited by 38 publications

References 6 publications

Business support in sport: strategy or serendipity?

Business support in sport: strategy or serendipity?

SME Policy Support in Britain since the 1990s: What have We Learnt?

Expectations‐based evaluation of SME advice and consultancy: an example of business link services

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