Fully funded PhD Studentship (South Coast DTP) - Small Businesses, Place and Industrial Success

Small businesses have grown in number over recent years. The UK Government seeks to better understand the changing role and potential of small businesses and how these vary between places. This research addresses this aim using secondary and/or primary quantitative and/or qualitative data to understand how and where small businesses in the UK achieve economic success, and their relationships with larger firms across space. The emphasis on productivity, growth and/or innovation will depend on the interests and knowledge of the student.

Research questions:

1. How and where do small businesses achieve productivity, growth and/or innovation?
2. In what ways, and to what extent, do small businesses benefit from agglomeration externalities, e.g. infrastructure, specialist labour and suppliers, business clusters/networks?
3. What are the two-way interdependencies between small businesses and larger firms, and how globalised or localised are these linkages in different locations?

Skills required of the PhD student:

The student would be likely to come from a geography, business or economics background. Depending on the emphasis given to particular aspects of the research questions, and the disciplinary background and interests of the student appointed, the research could comprise either an entirely quantitative approach or a mixed methods approach. Quantitative skills would include collation and manipulation of secondary data sets (business population data, supplemented by Census, Labour Force Survey and commercial property data). The research questions could be tackled through a primary survey of businesses in selected locations, and may include in-depth interviews with business owners regarding location choice and use of business networks.