Publications – CREDI

Selected publications from the CREDI team

See more CREDI-related publications on the individual webpages of our directors.

Employee-owned business resilience and recovery

Report to Scottish Enterprise, Co-operative Development Scotland and Scotland for Employee Ownership
31 March 2021
Juliette Summers and Boyka Bratanova

The financial and social resilience of employee-owned businesses (EOBs), with a significant focus on people, job security, health, equality and wellbeing, suggests important lessons for building back a better and more inclusive economy in Scotland.

In early 2021, Dr Juliette Summers and Dr Boyka Bratanova did a research survey of EOBs and worker cooperatives operating in Scotland. The project was carried out on behalf of Co-operative Development Scotland, which is part of Scottish Enterprise, and the industry leadership group Scotland for Employee Ownership.

The findings show:

Many EOBs are demonstrating a socially balanced, inclusive way of being economically and socially viable and resilient.
EOBs with lower debt burdens going into the pandemic have more financial and social resilience.
Embedded and established employee ownership appears to be beneficial for adapting to pandemic circumstances and facilitates growth when presented with emerging opportunities.

Download the report: Employee-owned business resilience and recovery (pdf).

The Social exclusion of a youth population in Scotland: Is the ‘framing’ of the problem the actual problem?

Report funded by RSA (Scotland) Venture Fund
June 2019
Juliette Summers and W B Howieson

A greater voice for young people could be critical for inclusive growth that moves Scotland away from social and economic inequality.

CREDI Associate Director Dr Juliette Summers and Professor Brian Howieson of Edinburgh Napier Business School analysed government policy and interviewed youth workers in a research project examining how public and third sector organisations frame problems in relation to youth exclusion.

They found that the problems were framed very differently, as either more ‘tame’ and manageable or more ‘wicked’ and complex. Furthermore, criteria for success in developing solutions were different, with policy documents looking toward quantitative goals, and youth work organisations aiming for less easily measurable outcomes and soft skills, such as kindness, empathy, relationship building and caring.

The research report strongly points to the pursuit of inclusive growth being incomplete without acknowledgement of and support for inclusivity skills – the development of which involves conceiving of measurement differently, putting young people at the centre of policy design by de-siloing economic and social policy, and emphasising belonging, self-worth and participative skills.

Download the report: Social Exclusion of a Youth Population (pdf).

Download more about the research: Inclusion Skills for Inclusive growth: The importance of kindness and community (pdf).