Impact case study database

The research has directly contributed to Leeds City Council putting in place strategies and practice changes that have progressed the City’s vision of creating an inclusive economy, focused on social goals, social justice and environmental sustainability. This has included establishing a permanent Leeds Anchor Network, directing more of the anchor organisations’ procurement budgets into the local economy and supporting ‘good jobs’ within the supply chain. The six local authorities that make up the West Yorkshire Combined Authority have also benefitted from the research findings and it has been used to inform inclusive growth planning by the Welsh Government and the Key Cities Network’s engagement with government.

The research findings were a major lever in mobilising support from the anchor organisations within in the City to move towards creating an inclusive local economy. The research enabled the anchors to collectively identify and to take the first steps towards changing their own practices and policies. The Lead Officer for Skills and Employment at Leeds City Council at the time explained how important the findings were in initiating a programme of change:

*… there was real interest in the Anchor concept at the Council and in February 2018, I submitted a report to the Council’s Leadership Team and the Cabinet on a proposed programme to be taken forward at the Leeds local authority geography with key local partners. The ability to reference independent academic research which identified key levers and quantified the potential impact was invaluable in securing ownership by key strategic leaders. For example, the report estimated that collective action to shift a further 10% of anchor institutions’ procurement expenditure to the Leeds City Region would be worth £170-£190m to the local economy every year, supporting local businesses and in turn jobs growth – this headline really helped to secure attention and support (C1a, former Chief Officer Employment and Skills, Leeds City Council).

Recognition that procurement can be one of the best ways of connecting economic growth to alleviate poverty emerged during the research. By developing a better understanding of the effects of their organisational spend, participating organisations were able to look to increase their impact on the local economy, establish targets for redirecting spend locally, adapt procurement processes and seek to develop capacity within local supply chains. Representatives of local authority procurement teams in West Yorkshire worked collaboratively during and after the project, sharing information and knowledge, acting as ambassadors for change in their organisations and influencing £150,000,000 procurement spend in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

One of the research participants, Leeds City Council, commissioned external consultants to undertake more detailed analysis of their procurement spend (C2, CLES, 2019) and shared this with other partners in a newly established ‘Leeds anchor network’ (see below). The report recommendations called for the City’s anchors to ensure their own procurement practices were accessible to a diverse supply chain to open up opportunities, to engage with suppliers to enhance their understanding of social value and to introduce contract monitoring systems to track progress on spend figures and its indirect impact. The research framework has informed the development of a new procurement strategy (2019-2024) in Leeds (implemented as a consequence of the Inclusive Growth Strategy, 2017-18), setting out improvements to deliver wider social value, including a commitment to paying the real living wage, through procurement. The Council’s spend with third parties through procurement and commissioned activity remains close to £800,000,000 per annum and engages over 930 contractors (C3, Leeds City Council, 2020). Within one of the university anchors, the procurement team embraced the opportunity to embed sustainability into all procurement activity. The analysis and subsequent actions has seen the university move from about a quarter to almost 60% of discretionary spend in the city, 70% of which is now with small and medium sized businesses, with 20% in the most deprived areas of Leeds. The University now monitors and reports on this spend and continually improves measurement and reporting on impact.

Participating organisations also used the co-produced framework for good jobs to review existing employment practices with a particular focus on understanding and meeting the needs and aspirations of the lowest paid. Research outputs realised in the course of the action research project included the identification of almost 50 good practices associated with initiatives to support inclusive growth and alleviate poverty. The sharing of this knowledge amongst participants created a platform to support innovation and provided a foundation for impact in participating organisations. Leeds City Council was particularly proactive in this domain, conducting reviews and developing or refining interventions to better meet the needs of those at risk of in-work poverty in their workforce (15,000 workers). Changes include payment of the real living wage, fringe benefits designed to meet the needs of those at risk of poverty, advice and guidance to support financial inclusion, health and wellbeing initiatives (see R2). They extended this work through the West Yorkshire Combined Authority with the sharing of good practice providing a source of inspiration and practical ideas to support change in human resource management and development practices in other local authorities. The Procurement Manager at York Teaching Hospitals Trust adapted the procurement process to include the framework for Good Jobs in their tendering process for local services (£4,500,000) and continues to promote it with peers in other areas of the Yorkshire region.

The research recommendations highlighted the role that local authorities have to play in catalysing and coordinating collaborative anchor activity, making the most of their convening role and enabling other anchors to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. The action research project provided a foundation for this through learning sets developing practical intelligence associated with procurement and employment and the City Council used this knowledge to embrace the opportunity to facilitate the development of a Leeds Anchors Network (C4, Leeds City Council, 2018). Leeds City Council made further investments to develop the approach outlined in the underpinning research to support the implementation of the anchors initiative (C5, Leeds City Council).

The Council has convened a group of a dozen large organisations rooted in the city, a network of universities, colleges, health and hospital trusts, and major utilities that acts a pillar of a wider inclusive strategy in the city of Leeds. The aim is to increase the positive impact these organisations have on the City, and in particular to provide more support to those suffering disadvantage (C6, Leeds City Council Anchors Network). These anchors employ 1 in 7 of the Leeds workforce, and spend more than £2,000,000,000 every year on goods and services. The Leeds Anchor Network is chaired by the Vice Chancellor of Leeds Beckett and is encouraging innovation to increase the amount of money circulating in the city economy through targeting local spend and supporting the development of sustainable local supply chains (C7, Leeds in Conversation). The Chief Officer, Culture and Economy at Leeds City Council confirmed the centrality of the Anchor network in realising the City Council’s vision of economic growth that is fairly distributed across society:

*‘We see the Leeds Anchors Network as being a fundamental partnership in the city in terms of helping us deliver against our inclusive growth strategy’ (C1b, Chief Officer, Culture and Economy, Leeds City Council).

LBS’s research on the use of evidence in policy making and the role that anchor institutions play has been applied more widely. The Corporate Policy Manager at Wakefield Municipal District Council notes the impact of the underpinning research on the Key Cities Network, a network of 24 mid-size cities and urban areas located across the UK. The research has provided the group with evidence that it has used to engage and lobby with ministers at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

*The work on Anchor Institutions in the LCR was highly influential across Key Cities authorities, particularly in supporting the work of the WYCA’s Inclusive Growth Group. It provided information and data for engagement and lobbying with government ministers, both at MHCLG and BEIS, around raising the potential and profile of Key Cities members with government and a greater focus on inclusive growth.” (C1c, Corporate Policy Manager at Wakefield Municipal District Council)

Professor Devins’s work also supported a number of subsequent policy reports prepared by Key Cities. It has shaped thinking and planning with politicians and officers at local and regional level including the issues around the wider inclusive growth agenda and to the development of Local Industrial Strategies.

The Welsh Government has used the research to consider the development of a framework to promote shared value and an approach to evaluation that encourages learning and sustainable development (C8, WCPP, 2017). One of the authors (Devins) of the underpinning research has informed further policy scoping work undertaken by NHS England and is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation in a report that brings forward new evidence, practical methods and opportunities to show how the health sector is essential to a stable, functioning economy (C9, Boyce and Brown, 2019). More recently the underpinning research and the Leeds Anchors Network are cited in a report highlighting the role of health in driving inclusive, economic growth in a post-pandemic future (C10, Yhealth4growth, 2020). Most recently of all, the Dean of LBS, University Head of Procurement, and the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council discussed the impact of the Anchor network/model at InvestNorth 2021, a major new conference attended by the Government Minister for the Northern Powerhouse alongside public and private sector leaders.

LBS’s ongoing analysis of ECM data has contributed to the development of global communication management practice. Research insights have directly supported the sustainability of the global communications industry by helping it to prepare for new sector wide challenges; to identify trends in practitioner skills to inform training and education; and prompting action to address gender equality. The research has benefitted industry associations and professionals in large multi-national corporations through to small operators by enabling global sharing of best practice and academic/industry knowledge exchange. The ECM’s findings are regularly shared via its website ( viewed by 31,264 people between 2014-2020, academic conferences, professional presentations, webinars, podcasts and videos on YouTube (that have been viewed a total of 32,681 times between 2014-2020).

The GCM has created a worldwide network of 80,000 communication professionals, practitioners and academics in over 80 countries. This network is contributing to sector development by identifying and sharing best practice, monitoring and benchmarking strategic priorities and enhancing cross cultural co-operation. Central to the network’s success is a close collaboration between researchers and practitioners. The European network has expanded from the original 5 to 28 institutions (December 2020) in Europe and worldwide this has expanded in 5 years with 40 more academic institutions forming their own regional networks (Asia Pacific, 16; Latin America, 19; North America, most recently, 10). *“The success of the ECM demonstrated the value of this kind of data and the feasibility of a project on this scale, and the NACM is a direct result of the value coming out of the European version.” (C1). The Latin American Monitor (LAM) has also developed a Spanish speaking practitioner network (Fundacom), helping to generate new insights, increase discourse and develop theories and practice to improve performance across the sector: *“It is important to have different surveys in different areas. We can learn from the other areas and see what they are doing. For example, Latin American PR departments have good skills in CSR because sustainability is important, so businesses in Spain can learn from this. It is important to know what trends are in Latin America because a lot of big Spanish companies also have companies in Latin America..” ( **C2.*)

The ECM research team established a competency framework to standardise role requirements across the sector and devised a framework of excellence as a blueprint for quality (R1). These tools model the characteristics of high-performing communication departments, enabling organisations and individuals to identify training and development needs to address inconsistencies in communications performance, practices and standards. The tools have been used widely across the sector to inform practice and to decide what training opportunities to offer, as evidenced by two examples from senior UK and EU practitioners:

*“[when] I was Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum, a major international agency. I used the ECM as part of the continuous professional development platform, which is used by all 2,500 practitioners in the agency. It runs a syllabus and every three to six months it provides training around a contemporary area of public relations practice and would inevitably draw on the ECM for insight.” ( C3, **Past President, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)*).

“ *The ECM’s data on trends shows what is on the mind of other colleagues, which in turn reflects on priorities for training. It influenced decisions about budget, in terms of which types of courses to get them on, or which type of coaching to give them. It did inform different aspects because […] you could see how some concepts in the profession are different by geographic region.” ( C5, Former Corporate and Online Communications Manager IBM Europe)

The North American Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) has used the ECM’s resources on competency and frameworks to inform the development of public relations curricula within the US education system. As a member of its Advisory Board (2015-2021), Prof Tench has drawn on the research to contribute to influential CPRE global education papers and reports. Tench has been invited to stay on beyond 2021, increasing opportunities for the research to influence practice in the US (C4&10).

The research team developed benchmarking tools, based on the capabilities of over 50,000 (European) communication professionals from 48 countries. This enables individuals and organisations to benchmark their own capabilities around key topics such as AI, cybersecurity and fake news and to review and adapt their processes to ensure they are competitive and ethically astute. Since 2019 the benchmarking tools had been accessed by over 746 practitioner organisations in 25 countries. A past president of the professional body that oversees PR in the UK, explains its value to the sector : “ *Year on year it is a useful tool to understand practice and benchmark and then as an ongoing diagnostic for organisations to measure excellence and performance against this. The trend data is useful to understand the evolution of practice – because much of our profession is changing - it is interesting to understand that from an executional point of view helping inform education providers, professional bodies like the CIPR and individual organisations.” ( C3 Past President (CIPR).* It has also been used to contribute to workforce planning, recruitment and selection processes as evidenced below by a German member of the GCM network: *“[The ECM] can give me an indication regarding the future topics of PR; it gives me also a good indication in which areas I have to further develop the skills of my team. I can see whether data-driven PR or algorithm-based analysis, stakeholder orientation or NGO focus is in the forefront of thinking and if I don’t have the right people in my team, I get an indication for the need to train or hire them.*” *( C6. Executive Vice President Corporate Communications & Governmental Affairs, Bosch GmbH).

ECM findings also raise awareness of workplace conditions and one of the issues highlighted is persistent gender inequalities within the sector and in every region. This has promoted UK industry members to initiate change within their organisations to increase transparency to reduce gender gaps : “The ECM has been helpful in raising awareness of issues like the gender pay gap, as PR is a feminised profession; the ECM’s reporting on this has led trade organisations to start to measure and characterise that issue particularly as it relates to their own market. The CIPR (10,000 members) and PRCA (30,000 members) both now conduct census surveys and publish data on their membership annually. It would be unthinkable now if they didn’t.” ( **C3.**)

Prompted by the ECM findings, Dr Martina Topić led a stand-alone project, Women in Advertising (2018) to explore inequalities in this sector. Women reported exclusion from business decisions, sexism and sexual harassment, as well as masculine organisational cultures that impede career progression. This research has reached communicators across Europe via practice social media networks and led to change at a media agency in Croatia which commented that it was “...profoundly changing the nature of work in Croatian journalism by empowering the position of women and by opening the themes that were previously considered as unappropriated in Croatian media spaces.” ( C7) The European Public Relations Research and Education Association (EUPRERA) responded by setting up a network (Women in PR 2018-21) dedicated to influencing change for women around the world. This started with 8 members including founders Topić and Tench and now has 21 members across 9 countries and 14 institutions. An example of an output of this network is a partnership between Women in PR and ULBRA University in Brazil, resulting in greater insights into women’s experiences of working in practice in America and Brazil.

The findings from the GCM family have influenced communications sector teaching within higher education. Evidence from an evaluative survey of the ECM indicated that 66% of academics who took part agreed or strongly agreed that the ECM findings improved understanding of key issues affecting communications practitioners (C8), helping to equip students for work in the sector. A textbook based on the research findings and initiated and co-authored by Prof. Tench, Exploring Public Relations and Management Communication (Pearson), is now in its 5^th edition and is the primary textbook for communication students , demonstrated by global sales in excess of 45,000 copies since 2007. GCM findings have also been used to design curricula in university programmes, ensuring that future communications professionals have key competences necessary to succeed in their roles. For example, the University of Technology Sydney has drawn on the Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor “in updating academic subjects that address culture and cross-cultural communication and expanded our media subjects to reflect models of media in China and other countries in addition to Western models.” **(C9.) Moreover, the GCM network itself has created opportunities for knowledge exchange programmes between academics and practitioners that has helped to shape curricula in HE, provide internships and enhance the skills of practitioners through university-led training opportunities.

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Our research has supported the design, development and delivery of flagship interventions in the Yorkshire region and nationally to support SME start-up and growth that has contributed to new jobs and sustained growth.

The Business Growth Calderdale (2013-2015) programme was a £3 million project, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Our understanding of the critical success factors underpinning successful engagement of SMEs directly informed a programme of support introduced in the Calderdale local authority area in West Yorkshire. The model encouraged SMEs to contribute to the knowledge production process through a conversational diagnostic to benchmark activity and performance. This intelligence was used to inform the development and delivery of a tailored intervention which drew on one or more of the following services:

• innovative classroom-based learning blending academic knowledge with practical intelligence to ensure that the learning was relevant and actionable in the SME context

• one-to-one coaching to support knowledge transfer and embedding in the workplace

• peer-to-peer learning cohorts

Over two years the programme supported 207 businesses, created 49 jobs and safeguarded 70 more. Furthermore, gross value added across the participating businesses increased by £1,242,415. An independent evaluation of the programme recognised the value of the research-informed approach and its impact on network capability, successful knowledge transfer and SME engagement (C1):

*The success of the Calderdale Growth Strategy programme shaped our business support policy going forward and enabled us to achieve one of our long-held strategic objectives of creating a university presence within the council boundaries. As a council we were very aware that many young people and businesses left our area as we lacked a physical university resource - so it was incredibly important for us to create this presence. The Piece Mill Business Centre, funded through the Ad:Venture programme, has achieved this - it reassures our businesses that there is a long-term commitment and support available and demonstrates how the university can enhance the economic growth within Calderdale. (C1).

As mentioned here, Professors Gold and Devins collaborated on the design of a follow-on programme, Ad:Venture (2016-2022), which drew on the successes of the Calderdale programme in providing support to pre-startup and startup businesses in sectors of strategic importance aligned with both the city-region economic development plan and the government’s Industrial Strategy. The initial phase of the programme (2017-19) focussed on the development of the digital sector in Calderdale and engaged 96 businesses, provided 1650 hours of coaching support, 16 bespoke masterclasses and 16 digital networking and knowledge exchange events. As a result, 8 new jobs were created, 5 businesses progressed from pre- to startup stage, 11 businesses introduced new products or services within their business and 8 introduced new products and services to the market (C2).

*The programme was ideal for us as it had the right blend of advice and coaching and at the core it was adaptable to who we were, where we were at and where we wanted to go – so that tailored approach was really important for us. It certainly helped us though those first couple of critical years – without it I think we’d still be around but the business would probably be about 30-40% lower in terms of turnover. So I can honestly say that Ad:Venture is one of the best things we’ve done. (C2).

Testimonials and case studies provide an insight into the impact the programme can have on participating SMEs with some suggesting 60-70% increase in sales turnover attributed to the programme (C3). As the programme has expanded into other districts, more than 200 small business leaders attended events with 98% reporting a high level of satisfaction. The AdVenture programme as a whole has supported the creation of 345 new jobs (to December 2019).

Drawing on the original model, Devins, Gold and Jones contributed to the development of Leeds Beckett Accelerate, an incubator introduced in 2019 to support early stage entrepreneurs:

*Professor Gold guided the development of the niche Accelerate programme which is unique in offering a more peer support/cohort focussed approach which is different to the other provider offers and more effective. Accelerate contains more participant contact which is vital for early stage entrepreneurs as it is very lonely process running a start-up and they have benefitted from being able to talk to other entrepreneurs in a similar position. This has been particularly helpful through the pandemic as it has enabled businesses to support each other through the programme (C3).

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred programme innovations, with new content, masterclasses, coaching and networking events moving online. The relationship with SMEs has remained strong and testimonials provide evidence of the impact of the programme on SMEs in terms of resilience and business growth (C4).

*… the most valuable aspect of the programme was the one-to-one coaching and mentoring. That made the difference and moved us from thinking, well we’ll just have to pause on this business idea for now because of the pandemic,to actually seeing that there’s an opportunity here and we can do something different. As a result, we’ve continued to trade throughout and have actually grown our business and products. (C4).

The underpinning research highlights the value of business support networks as a way of engaging leaders in peer-to-peer learning that focuses on relevant business issues. The Independent Food and Drink Academy (IFDA) established by Leeds Beckett in 2016 provides smaller businesses in the food and drink sector with facilitated events to support their growth and sustainability. Fifty small business leaders are at the heart of the network, deciding the content and delivery of the activities with opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other to promote the attractiveness of Leeds as a destination (C5).

*I think the IFDA is an invaluable resource to the independent food and drink sector in Leeds. It can definitely help remove the barriers to growth and make the journey a lot less difficult and pain free. I think that the resources for learning, and tools that are available especially for new businesses in their early days when as a business owner you’re spending all of your time on the coalface, to be able to step away from it, and share your troubles and learn from others, whether that is peer to peer, or through you know, professional advice, I think is really, really helpful. I wish it had been there when we opened North Bar over 20 years ago, or that something similar had been in place then (C5).

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gold devised a new action learning programme, Futures and Foresight, to enable SME managers to consider possibilities for at least 5 years ahead as well as to prepare for difficulties. Delivered at a distance by Zoom, the process focuses on the key questions that a business faces against the impact of Covid-19, allowing the group working with the business manager to develop its strategic focus (C6).

*The Futures Thinking work with Professor Jeff Gold has had the following impact on our strategic planning: (1) We now fully understand what the challenges facing us are in both a positive and negative way. (2) This has enabled us to focus on achieving the desired objectives and at the same time avoiding the less desirable outcomes. (C6).

The research also contributed to setting up of another Leeds City Region peer-to-peer network (2018) engaging academics and practitioners with an interest in improving productivity. The network provided a foundation for several interventions including 4 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with SMEs and an Innovate UK Research (Business Basics) project working with SMEs to support productivity measurement, analysis and improvement. The results of the study are being incorporated into consultations with the regional LEP, who are interested in utilising the power of ‘close others’, and intermediaries to help SMEs in the region. So far 6 busineses have developed their own productivity improvement plans and research results show that they have all increased their performance management capability – one businesses has also successfully applied for a mKTP with LBS. (C7&8).

*Since working with LBS (Dr Ollie Jones) we have gained a much more detailed understanding of efficiency and productivity and how it is an important part of any business. The knowledge has enabled us to increase profits and create an effective, happy and engaged team. The SME Productivity Performance Management Capability Programme is really pushing our skills to the next level with detailed learning activities and the effective use of data to analyse, predict and develop the business and all team members. The results are greater understanding of what productivity means and how this can effectively improve all areas of the business. (C7)

Jones and Gold continue to collaborate with Local Enterprise Partnerships in the North of England Region seeking to engage SMEs and promote improved productivity, resilience and sustainability.

The research has influenced small business support and policy and practice in the UK beyond the Yorkshire region. In 2019-20, Devins collaborated with other leading researchers on the design and delivery of the Chartered Association of Business Schools Leading to Grow (50 SMEs, 2019-2020) and Small Business Leadership Development Programmes (100 SMEs, 2020-21).