Professor Sunitha Narendran, director of Roehampton Business School in London, said "the report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) identifying barriers that continue to confront BAME firms is important and “also so very disappointing, particularly since there is an extensive amount of existing research that confirms this problem.”
She said: “There are several policy interventions and initiatives promulgated to mitigate this issue here in the UK. Why haven’t they worked? The social-psychologist in me is urging now for a focus on pinning down the processes that twist policy and well-intended interventions.
We urgently need process-based evaluations that explain why something is not working rather than repeatedly reporting problems that seem to continue to persist. It is not enough to treat the symptoms without addressing the real issue and its complexities.”