UK SMEs’ awareness, use, and perceptions of selected government export assistance – An investigation into the effect of ethnicity

This study reports on a government funded empirical investigation into UK managers’ export behaviour and assistance requirements and focuses on one aspect of the research, namely perceptions towards selected export assistance programmes. Specifically, it investigates whether differences exist between managers of UK small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) owned by executives from particular ethnic origins, i.e. Asian and indigenous (white)‐owned firms, in relation to their awareness and frequency of use of the programmes, together with their perceptions towards the availability of the assistance schemes. The paper presents statistical differences between the two ethnic groups leading to the recommendation that public policy makers may need to rethink their approach towards the delivery of assistance in order that scarce resources are allocated more efficiently and effectively.