Productivity indicators

Scottish Enterprise aims to have a positive influence on these indicators, but accounting for (or “attributing”) the direct impact of our activity on them is not straightforward as some of these interventions will have more immediate (short term) impacts whilst other interventions will impact over the longer term.

Recent consideration by Audit Scotland has shown that Scottish Enterprise is well advanced in this area. We use a range of techniques to help achieve this, including project appraisal, evaluation and customer survey. For example, we assess the contribution of all of our projects to Scotland's GDP/GVA. For both the companies we support and the industries we prioritise, we measure the following:

  • Enterprise: turnover we help to grow;
  • Innovation: research and development we help to stimulate;
  • Investment: investment we help to lever.

Measuring our direction of travel

Where it is possible to quantify our more immediate contribution to the Government's purpose, we identify "in-year" measures of progress.

These will also help to ensure that we can demonstrate the value of what we are delivering to business customers, partners, parliamentarians and the general public in an accessible way. They should be seen alongside our wider, longer-term contribution to the Government's purpose with more qualitative progress achieved through the full set of projects and programmes in this plan.

Summary of “in-year” measures Range
Enterprise  
Growth businesses supported* 1,900 - 2,100
Additional turnover growth in businesses supported £400 million - £600 million
Growth businesses increasing their sales turnover by £1 million plus in the previous three years 800 – 1,000
Planned jobs through inward investment of a high value nature 1,800 - 2,400
Major high growth start-ups (including spin outs) with potential to reach a value of £5 million (£2 million GVA) in three years 18 - 23
Innovation  
Investment in research and development by supported businesses £50 million - £60 million
High value knowledge transfers between business and academia supported (collaborations, licences, joint ventures) 20 - 30
Investment  
Private sector leverage invested per deal through Scottish Enterprise Investment Funds 1:2 to 1:3
Leverage from investment on site in high impact business infrastructure projects 1:2 to 1:2.5
*This represents 50 per cent of Scotland's companies with growth potential, that need our help to realise that potential. Technical notes on the targets and how they each relate to the Government’s purpose and economic strategy targets are available.

In addition to Government Economic Strategy economy-wide measures, the relevant national indicators and the in-year measures identified above we will include a selection of other indicators which help us better understand the drivers of economic growth and monitor the delivery of our business. These include:

  • GDP per head
  • Business Research and Development as percentage total Research and Development
  • Graduates as a percentage of the population
  • Net migration as a percentage of the population.