Smaller enterprises and innovation in the UK: the SPRU innovations database revisited

Abstract This paper presents a re-examination of the evidence provided by the SPRU Innovations Database on the role of smaller enterprises in technological innovation over the period 1975–1983. This re-examination is the result of a detailed investigation of the smaller organisations listed on the Database in that period. The analysis reveals smaller enterprises to be a less important source of technological innovation that was previously demonstrated by the SPRU Database in its original form. It also shows that, contrary to the evidence provided by the Database in its original form, smaller enterprises in the manufacturing sector did not introduce a disproportionately large share of the listed innovations relative to their share of employment, even in the last years of the Database.