Regional resilience is a topic of growing academic and policymaker interest. This article empirically examines this concept by scrutinising the impact of Brexit on Scottish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given their crucial importance for the Scottish economy, SMEs are a good ‘unit of analysis’ and a powerful barometer for measuring regional resilience. The research adopted a novel mixed methods approach examining the Longitudinal Small Business Survey together with in-depth interviews with SMEs. It is clear from the survey analysis that certain types of SMEs (i.e. innovators and exporters) were disproportionately fearful of Brexit. This was firmly corroborated by the interview data which found these same firms to be the most detrimentally impacted, manifesting in reductions in employment, exports and innovation. In contrast, the majority of domestically focused, less innovative SMEs were much less concerned and less negatively affected. While a small minority managed to deploy adjustment mechanisms to mitigate these negative effects, overall many firms had major difficulties operationally and strategically coping with this uncertain and turbulent environment. The findings suggest proactive public policies will be needed to help mitigate the difficulties caused by Brexit for certain types of SMEs.

区域弹性是学术界和决策者日益增长的兴趣所在。本文通过仔细研究英国退欧对苏格兰中小企业的影响，从经验上考察了这一概念。鉴于中小企业对苏格兰经济至关重要，因此它们是一个很好的“分析单位”，也是衡量区域弹性的强大晴雨表。该研究采用了一种新颖的混合方法，对纵向小型企业调查以及对中小企业的深入访谈进行了研究。从调查分析中可以明显看出，某些类型的中小型企业（即创新者和出口商）对英国退欧的担忧程度过高。采访数据坚定地证明了这一点，这些数据发现这些公司受到的影响最大，表现为减少就业，出口和创新。相比之下，多数以国内为重点，创新程度较低的中小企业受到关注的程度也大大降低。尽管一小部分人设法部署了调整机制以减轻这些负面影响，但总体上，许多公司在运营和战略上都难以应对这种不确定和动荡的环境。调查结果表明，将需要采取积极的公共政策来减轻英国退欧给某些类型的中小企业带来的困难。