Team Scotland's Export Promotion Support: evaluation

1. Introduction

1.1 Scotland's export growth plan, A Trading Nation (hereafter referred to as ATN) was published in 2019. It recognised that access to international markets and international competition drives business performance, innovation, and productivity growth, thus stimulating economic growth, generating job opportunities and higher living standards, as well as the tax receipts critical for the delivery of public services.

1.2 The strategy, utilising evidence on key geographical markets, sectors, and the characteristics of exporting firms, featured a set of actions for the Scottish Government and partners to help reach a target to increase Scotland’s international exports as a share of GDP from 20% to 25% by 2029. It also pledged to monitor, evaluate and adjust these actions.

1.3 To this end, a working group was established comprising the Scottish Government and its key export support delivery partners including Scottish Development International (SDI), which leads on trade and investment support, to develop and implement an evaluation approach. Analysts in other parts of the Scottish Government, the Department for Business and Trade, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as subject experts in academia, were consulted. The framework was deliberately designed to provide a holistic assessment of: the impact of support on business outcomes; what support works; how the impacts are achieved; and lessons on delivery.

• The impact of support on business outcomes
• Which types of support work
• How the impacts are achieved
• Lessons on the delivery of support.

1.4 The framework is set out in figure 1 below. A research team from the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) and the Centre for Business Prosperity (CBP) at Aston Business School in Birmingham were commissioned to undertake an evaluation of Team Scotland’s export promotion support on this basis and helped further develop the approach. A review of delivery partners’ management information and interviews with customer facing staff within the delivery partners were carried out earlier by Frontline Consultants. Firms supported between 2018 and 2021 were within scope for evaluation.

Figure 1: Evaluation Approach

1. Business Surveys

Beneficiary AND non-beneficiary surveys of Scottish exporting businesses

2. Econometric Analysis

Assessment using different methods to estimate the impact of the support on exports and other business metrics.

3. Management Information Review and Delivery Practitioner Interviews

Desk based review of management information and interviews with those delivering the support.

4. Qualitative Analysis

In-depth understanding of the support to complement and add insight to other research methods.

1.5 The aforementioned delivery partner organisations are set out graphically in figure 2.

1.6 SDI work mainly on targeted one-to-one business support to assist them as they consider exporting activity and develop plans with business to grow their international footprint. Regional enterprise agencies, HIE and SoSE work largely with early-stage and non-exporters in awareness raising and early-stage support, to build and develop a pipeline of exporters at the right stage to pass to SDI for intensive support. The SCC trade missions programme also focus on feeding the pipeline of exporting businesses in Scotland, supporting those to access exporting. A Trading Nation moved SDI away from intensive, non-digital channel work with non-exporters, which is reflected in the results of the evaluation, as SDI work with a greater share of active exporters relative to SCC, HIE and SoSE.