Data Matching

Scottish Enterprise (SE) provides customised support to companies through its account management programme. 4-consulting was commissioned with Aston University to match information on account managed companies, from records held by from SE and Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE), with information from large-scale business surveys held by government.

The research established the potential impact of account management on company performance by comparing with (non-supported) control groups.  The data matching was developed as an alternative to traditional evaluations based on surveys.

The evaluation covered all support delivered to account managed companies. This included financial support, skills, innovation, strategy and internationalisation. The performance of companies was considered for individual support packages and investigated further by type of company.

“4-consulting has delivered a comprehensive report on the performance of account managed companies in Scotland providing a number of new insights and detail in what was a complex and challenging task. The consultant team were friendly, approachable, provided a high degree of analytical ability and worked closely with us at all stages of the work.”

Vincent Percy, Scottish Enterprise (February 2012)