Härting & Sprengel 2019 (UK study) — data-driven SMEs ~5% more productive and ~6% more profitable; magnitudes are self-reported correlations

Claim: A UK study (Härting & Sprengel 2019) found self-identified data-driven SMEs ~5% more productive and ~6% more profitable; a separate analysis found top-quartile online-data users ~13% more productive than bottom-quartile.

Source: sbij.scholasticahq.com (summary of both)

Confidence: Single-source / academic; direction consistent across studies, magnitudes are self-reported correlations, not proven causation.

Why this matters for Candid: The honest framing for clients — yes there is a modest measurable edge, no it is not the "data is the new oil" 10× narrative. Pair with Andreessen Horowitz, "The Empty Promise of Data Moats" (Casado & Lauten, 2019) — most "data network effects" are really scale effects that diminish for the defensibility side.