Shocks, uncertainty and regional resilience: The case of Brexit and Scottish SMEs

Ross Brown, Ronald V Kalafsky, Suzanne Mawson and Lori Davies
Additional contact information
Ross Brown: 7486University of St Andrews, UK
Ronald V Kalafsky: University of Tennessee, USA
Suzanne Mawson: 7622University of Stirling, UK

Local Economy, 2020, vol. 35, issue 7, 655-675

Abstract: Regional resilience is a topic of growing academic and policymaker interest. This article empirically examines this concept by scrutinising the impact of Brexit on Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given their crucial importance for the Scottish economy, SMEs are a good ‘unit of analysis’ and a powerful barometer for measuring regional resilience. The research adopted a novel mixed methods approach examining the Longitudinal Small Business Survey together with in-depth interviews with SMEs. It is clear from the survey analysis that certain types of SMEs (i.e. innovators and exporters) were disproportionately fearful of Brexit. This was firmly corroborated by the interview data which found these same firms to be the most detrimentally impacted, manifesting in reductions in employment, exports and innovation. In contrast, the majority of domestically focused, less innovative SMEs were much less concerned and less negatively affected. While a small minority managed to deploy adjustment mechanisms to mitigate these negative effects, overall many firms had major difficulties operationally and strategically coping with this uncertain and turbulent environment. The findings suggest proactive public policies will be needed to help mitigate the difficulties caused by Brexit for certain types of SMEs.

Keywords: Brexit; regional resilience; shocks; SMEs; uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094220979261 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:loceco:v:35:y:2020:i:7:p:655-675

DOI: 10.1177/0269094220979261

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Local Economy from London South Bank University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().