The creative industries are the fastest growing part of the UK economy. This report aims to get to the heart of the issue: what do creative enterprises understand by growth, how fast are they growing, and what prevents them from growing more?

This report provides insights from Money For Jam, a micro-enterprise initiative for older women.

The primary aim of this project was to determine how online distribution is changing the environment for operating a creative micro-enterprise, and with it, the larger relationship between public and private spheres. A key research question was - what are the ‘self-making’ skills required to...

The advent of Industry 4.0 emphasises the potential importance of digital adoption for sustained competitiveness. Here, based on new survey data for over 9,000 firms in the UK, Ireland and USA we consider whether digital adoption provides a new mechanism through which firms’ growth ambition...

Drawing on new survey data this report provides a profile of micro-businesses with 1-9 employees in Northern Ireland in comparison to UK regional, Irish and US benchmarks. The report provides the first evidence on levels of business ambition, resilience and digital adoption for this group...

Millions of workers do not have standard work arrangements—permanent jobs with a traditional employer-employee relationship. Rather, they are in temporary, contract, or other forms of non-standard employment arrangements in which they may not receive employer-provided retirement and health benefits, or have safeguards such as job-protected...

The maker movement is on the rise. There are already over one million Etsy sellers worldwide. Together, they sold over $1.35 billion worth of goods in 2013. The emerging maker movement offers the tantalizing promise of a better economy—one that puts people at the center...

Although Etsy sellers differ from traditional entrepreneurs in many ways, they are emblematic of larger shifts in the economy towards self-employment and micro-business. Most are businesses of one, and face very different challenges from even a five- or ten-person enterprise. Government and regulatory agencies should...

Fifty years ago, the average worker expected to stay with one employer for the duration of their career, and that employer provided a full suite of benefits that guaranteed economic security to the worker and their family. Today traditional full-time employment is no longer the...

Etsy is a global creative commerce platform that builds markets, services, and economic opportunities for creative entrepreneurs. Within Etsy markets, millions of people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell, and buy unique goods. We believe that we’re creating a new...