Scottish start-ups and small businesses are growing more slowly than their peers in many other parts of the UK, according to research.
The study suggests that the number of start-ups being formed in Scotland and the proportion of those going on to achieve more than £1 million of annual sales is lower than the UK average.
More established businesses also were slower than average to increase their revenue beyond the £3 million mark.
The Enterprise Research Centre, led by academics from the University of Warwick and Aston University in Birmingham, looked at a range of metrics to produce its UK local growth dashboard. Scotland had a rate of 33 start-ups per 10,000 people, behind 50 companies for the UK as a whole. London was the