Ross Brown at the University of St. Andrews and his colleagues recently published research demonstrating that Scottish employee-owned businesses outperform capitalist firms as measured both by growth in employee numbers and by growth in turnover. It is a small study – just twelve worker-owned businesses are compared with a matched sample of capitalist firms – but nonetheless, it adds to the ever-growing body of evidence demonstrating that worker-owned businesses perform at least as well, and often better, than their capitalist competitors. And it is particularly interesting to see this research carried out in Scotland where worker-ownership seems to be growing unusually rapidly. You can read the full report here:

Brown, R, McQuaid. R, Raeside, R & Canduela, J (2014) “The performance of employee-owned businesses in Scotland: some preliminary empirical evidence.” Fraser of Allander Institute Economic Commentary 37 (3), 108–117.