Economic Impact Evaluation of Scottish Enterprise’s Interventions with Account and Client Managed Companies

In 2005 Scottish Enterprise (SE) implemented its Growing Business Strategy with the aim of focusing business development resources on companies that seemed to have the greatest growth potential. The main delivery vehicle was the Designated Relationship Management (DRM) programme which targeted support at some 2,000 Account and Client Managed companies. The evaluation aimed to assess the impact of SE’s Account and Client Managed interventions by looking at the impact of support over the 3 year period 2004/05 to 2006/07.

The principal method used for the evaluation was a company survey, undertaken using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) over a 10 week period between March and May 2008. 740 interviews were achieved out of an eligible Account and Client Managed population of 1,916 companies.

The analysis identified 2 key factors: that the majority of Account and Client Managed companies are satisfied with the support provided by SE and that the business support programme generates substantial benefits for the Scottish economy. SE’s net GVA impact on the Scottish economy was estimated to be £613.2 million (+/- 3.83%) between 2004/05 and 2006/07. In gross GVA terms, Account and Client Managed establishments appeared to be growing faster than the wider Scottish economy with gross GVA growth at 6.5% between 2004 and 2006, in comparison to 4.1% for the wider economy. The net employment impact on the Scottish economy was estimated to be 13,064 absolute jobs and 12,875 FTE jobs (+/- 3.20%) between 2004/05 and 2006/07, with the proportion of establishments reporting net additional employment benefit from SE support increasing year-on-year, peaking at 23% in 2006/07. The overall conclusion was that Account and Client Managed support represented good value for money, although it is noted that deadweight was high.

The main recommendation is that the Account and Client Managed programme should continue to be supported, with minor modifications.