TY - JOUR
T1 - What really happens to small and medium-sized enterprises in a global economic recession? UK evidence on sales and job dynamics
AU - Cowling, Marc
AU - Liu, Weixi
AU - Ledger, Andrew
AU - Zhang, Ning
PY - 2015/8/1
Y1 - 2015/8/1
N2 - We use UK data to consider how smaller firms coped during the financial crisis. This is important as smaller firms are major contributors to job creation, but are vulnerable to falling demand. We find that 4 in 10 smaller firms experienced a fall in employment during the recession, and 5 in 10 a fall in sales. Within 12 months of the recession, three-quarters of entrepreneurs had a desire to grow. This suggests that whilst the immediate effects of recession are severe, entrepreneurs recover quite quickly. Importantly, recessionary growth is hugely concentrated amongst entrepreneurs with the highest human capital.
AB - We use UK data to consider how smaller firms coped during the financial crisis. This is important as smaller firms are major contributors to job creation, but are vulnerable to falling demand. We find that 4 in 10 smaller firms experienced a fall in employment during the recession, and 5 in 10 a fall in sales. Within 12 months of the recession, three-quarters of entrepreneurs had a desire to grow. This suggests that whilst the immediate effects of recession are severe, entrepreneurs recover quite quickly. Importantly, recessionary growth is hugely concentrated amongst entrepreneurs with the highest human capital.
U2 - 10.1177/0266242613512513
DO - 10.1177/0266242613512513
M3 - Article
SN - 0266-2426
VL - 33
SP - 488
EP - 513
JO - International Small Business Journal
JF - International Small Business Journal
IS - 5
ER -