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Publication - Progress report

National Innovation Strategy: Scorecard (2024 Update)

Published
11 October 2024
From
Minister for Business
Directorate
Economic Development Directorate, +1 more … Chief Economist Directorate
Topic
Business, industry and innovation, Economy
ISBN
9781836018902

The National Innovation Strategy first published an Innovation Scorecard in 2023, tracking Scotland's performance against key metrics compiled from publicly available data. In the first annual update to the Scorecard, Scotland’s innovation performance is compared to UK and global peers.

View supporting documents Supporting documents

7. High Growth Businesses (Businesses with Average Annualised Employee Count Growth Greater than 20% per Annum over a Three-year Period)

7.1 Ecosystem

  • Commercialise

7.2 Performance Assessment

  • Performance Improving

7.3 Description

  • Evidence shows high growth companies generate a disproportionate number of jobs and innovations. A measure of the percentage of Scottish businesses that are considered “High Growth” can therefore be an indicative of the health of the innovation ecosystem.
  • As per the definition used in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Demography statistical release, high growth businesses have average annualised employee count growth greater than 20% per annum over a three-year period. This business count is then taken as a percentage of all active Scottish businesses with more than 10 employees.
  • Performance assessment threshold is +/-0.1 pp as per National Performance Framework (NPF).

7.4 Time Series

  • The share of “High Growth” businesses in Scotland has been on a downward trend from 2018 to 2021. The number of “High Growth” firms rose in 2022 – with similar trends seen across all 12 UK regions.
Chart 16: "High Growth" Enterprises, Scotland
A bar chart showing the percentage of “High Growth” enterprises rose in 2022 to 3.2%
Chart 17: "High Growth” Enterprises, UK Regions
A line chart showing that Scotland tends to be below England and Wales each year since 2017 in terms of the percentage of “High Growth” enterprises

7.5 Current Performance

  • 3.2% of Scottish businesses recorded as “High Growth” businesses in 2022.
  • The proportion of businesses with average annualised employee count growth greater than 20% per annum over a three-year period increased by 0.2 pp in 2022.

7.6 Previous Year Performance

  • In 2021, 3.0% of Scottish businesses were identified as “High Growth” businesses.
  • The number of “High Growth” enterprises in Scotland and in every UK region except North East fell in 2021 on the previous year.

7.7 UK Regional Benchmark

  • Scotland ranks 11th for “High Growth” businesses in the UK.
Chart 18: "High Growth" Enterprises, 2022
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 11th out of the 12 regions in terms of percentage of “High Growth” enterprises

7.8 International Benchmark

  • Using the EU definition of “High Growth” (>10%), Scotland is 24th amongst the EU27.
Chart 19: "High Growth" (>10%) Enterprises, 2021
A bar chart showing Scotland ranks 24th amongst the EU27 in terms of percentage of 'High Growth' enterprises

7.9 About the Data

Contact

Email: innovation@gov.scot

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