The negative impact that poor interpersonal skills can have on growing companies has been highlighted by a new survey of 500 small business owners. The research by Tempo suggests the main effects of bad people skills in the workplace are losing a client or customer, receiving complaints from co-workers and a decrease in productivity, each of which was cited by about a third of respondents.

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With less than a month to go before the government sets out its economic predictions in its first spring budget, new research points to a 30 percent increase in people planning to start a business or register as self-employed this year. With 1.4 million new limited company or self-employed registrations in 2019, 2020 could see that rise to as many as 1.8 million new registrations, Intuit QuickBooks, which commissioned the research, claims. More →

Eastern European businesses have benefited overall from EU membership but, for local firms, the promise of joining does not always live up to expectation or improve productivity, a report has warned. On the plus side, EU membership results in a significant increase in foreign investment, the report from IZA World of Labor suggests. More →

Senior employees being too confident about the value of their ideas could be one reason businesses are failing, according to research by the University of Cologne. The study, conducted by Professor Fabian Sting and a team of interdisciplinary co-authors, highlights how choosing the wrong ideas to pursue can lead businesses to make unwise investments and miss out on opportunities, which could threaten their survival. A large part of the problem, it says, is that the person who comes up with the idea overestimates how successful their innovation will be and views their skill or performance as better than it actually is. More →