Business Link services to small and medium-sized enterprises: targeting, innovation, and charging

Since the 1970s the provision of business support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain has been through quite separate organisations. The Business Link (BL) network, launched in England in 1992, is the latest initiative by which the government has sought to integrate support to SMEs and to shift the primary focus from start-up to established firms with growth potential. In this paper the author examines the provision of business support services available through BL. She reviews the underlying concepts of BL, the associated debates surrounding the initiative, and then presents new survey evidence from BLs on their target market, innovation, and charging strategy. It is found that: (1) the markets are being shifted from the desired targets of larger growth firms towards smaller firms; (2) personal business advisers (PBAs) are being relied on as the main method by which BLs identify potential growth firms; (3) the development of new local services is a low priority for BLs at this stage in their development; and (4) there is an inherent unwillingness to charge for services. The author concludes that the effect of the Department of Trade and Industry's intervention has been to 'nationalise' the system of business support. This has had a desirable effect of increasing the level of service availability and service quality, but has also had the effect of reducing local diversity.