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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Jeremy Phillipson, Dr Pattanapong Tiwasing, Professor Matthew GortonORCiD, Dr Sara MaioliORCiD, Dr Robert Newbery, Roger Turner
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Rural enterprises play an important economic role, contributing to national prosperity and wellbeing but are often a blind spot within rural development and wider economic policies and evidence. This paper presents an urban-rural analysis of a large scale survey of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It applies Propensity Score Matching to allow for an assessment of the effects of rurality on business performance. Results show that England's rural firms have similar levels of turnover to their urban counterparts, but are more likely to report a profit. The analysis also reveals rural firms to be significantly stronger exporters of goods and services and to have goods or services suitable for exporting. However, there are some weaknesses and obstacles to business success that concern significantly more rural than urban firms, that vary with the rurality of local districts, and which require the attention of policy makers and support providers seeking to achieve spatially-balanced and more equitable economic development.
Author(s): Phillipson J, Tiwasing P, Gorton M, Maioli S, Newbery R, Turner R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Rural Studies
Year: 2019
Volume: 68
Pages: 230-239
Print publication date: 01/05/2019
Online publication date: 03/10/2018
Acceptance date: 24/09/2018
Date deposited: 01/10/2018
ISSN (print): 0743-0167
ISSN (electronic): 1873-1392
Publisher: Pergamon Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.09.017
DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.09.017
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