Document details

Summary

Aims

Scottish Enterprise commissioned an independent review of the Scottish Enterprise and Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship Programme, to evaluate the performance of businesses which emerged as a result of Enterprise Fellows' participation in the programme and to assess those businesses' economic impact on the Scottish and UK economies. The aim of the programme is to assist individuals, mainly academics, to develop their entrepreneurial skills as they take forward new business ventures, usually science or technology-related.

Methods

Ernst & Young focused on the financial performance of the businesses and Oxford Economics focused on the economic impact. The authors jointly developed an electronic questionnaire, distributed to each Fellow, with a 73 per cent response rate.

Findings

According to the data, 44 businesses have so far been incorporated and 35 are trading. Only one business is known to have ceased trading. The programme generated investment of £70million between 2001 and 2006. Business turnover increased by 53% on average each year. Four businesses were identified as achieving sustained growth. National economic impact cannot be accurately calculated at such an early stage; however, in 2006, 277 people were directly employed by Fellowship businesses, most of whom were educated to at least degree level. Available data for 2006 showed a direct impact on Scotland's GVA of £1.4million.

Recommendations

No recommendations are made in this summary.

Record metadata

Documents	Full Report (278 KB, pdf)
Consultant	Ernst and Young LLP; Oxford Economics
Published year	2007
Pages	10
Document Type	Evaluation
Theme/Sector	Digital markets and enabling technologies, Entrepreneurship/new firm formation, Enterprise, Life Sciences, Sectors