In this policy briefing, Dr Magda Cepeda Zorrilla, Professor Anne Green, Dr Chloe Billing, Professor Simon Collinson and Dr Fengjie Pan report on the findings of their study which collected data from 300 firms across the West Midlands, examining what managers at these companies understood productivity to be, the policy implications of their varied understanding and concluding with a series of recommendations for policymakers.
Productivity is considered to have a direct impact on individual business success and therefore is a critical determinant of economic growth. However, understanding what productivity means varies across economic sectors and these sectoral differences in understanding productivity are also linked to differences in prioritising what is measured, and in turn, differences in actions taken to improve the firm performance. In order to improve productivity levels, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what productivity means and how can we measure it. We are seeking to address this is the gap in knowledge in our study by exploring the measurement of productivity from the managers’ perspective and also the measures used and the actions taken to improve it. In this policy brief, we are reporting the findings of our study which collected data from 300 managers’ firms in the West Midlands region, across the Business Professional and Financial Services (BPFS); Advanced Manufacturing (AM); Retail (R); and Hospitality (H) sectors. This brief provides a list of policy implications of the variation in understanding productivity and concludes with a series of recommendations for policymakers.
Download and view the policy briefing.
Download and view an accessible version of the policy briefing.
This blog was written by Dr Magda Cepeda Zorrilla, Professor Anne Green, Dr Chloe Billing, Professor Simon Collinson and Dr Fengjie Pan – City-REDI / WM REDI, University of Birmingham.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham