Situating small business regulation: A longitudinal study of how small firms receive, understand and respond to regulation

Prospering, internationally competitive small firms are crucial for the UK and its regions' economic and social well being. Yet there are widespread and longstanding concerns about the appropriate level and forms of regulation. Much of the statistical-survey-based received wisdom suggests that the regulatory burden for small firms is too high. Yet, recent research has exposed some key gaps in contemporary understandings of how small firms internalise and respond to regulation.
This interdisciplinary research project builds on this recent research and adopts a longitudinal, multi-method framework to explore how small firms understand and respond over time to different forms of regulation in contrasting sectoral (bioprocessing, film and media, and security) and geographic contexts (the North East and Cambridgeshire).
The novelty of the research thus lies in its attention to both the spatial and temporal context in which small firms operate and respond to regulation. The situated, contextually sensitive qualitative data produced will complement existing statistical-based 'snapshot' surveys and be of empirical and theoretical significance to a range of academic audiences and policy makers in regional and national government, small business support organisations, consultant/lobbying bodies, legal organisations and trade unions.

蓬勃发展、具备国际竞争力的小型企业，对于英国及其各地区的经济与社会福祉至关重要。然而，针对监管的适度水平与形式，长期以来广泛存在着诸多担忧。诸多基于统计调查的主流共识均认为，小型企业面临的监管负担过重。但近期研究却揭示出，当前学界对小型企业如何内化监管要求并作出应对的认知，存在若干关键缺口。
本跨学科研究项目以此项近期研究为基础，采用纵向多方法研究框架，探究小型企业如何随时间推移，在差异化的行业领域（生物加工（bioprocessing）、影视与传媒（film and media）及安防（security））与地理区位（英格兰东北部（the North East）、剑桥郡（Cambridgeshire））中，理解监管要求并作出应对。
因此，本研究的创新之处在于，同时关注小型企业开展经营与应对监管的空间与时间情境。本研究生成的根植于具体情境、具备情境敏感性的质性数据，将对现有基于统计的“快照式”调查形成有效补充，可为包括学术群体、各级政府政策制定者、小微企业支持机构、咨询/游说机构、法律服务机构及工会在内的多类受众，提供经验与理论层面的重要价值。