Government policy emphasises five ‘drivers’ of productivity: competition, enterprise, innovation, investment and skillsand each of these has been the subject of major programmes of reform (HM Treasury, 2006). Despite this, andnotwithstanding some improvement, UK productivity in terms of output...

Clusters are systems of localised economic activity and innovation. This report reviews current evidence on clustersand develops policy recommendations for the UK. It argues that clusters include multiple firms from related sectorsthat are co-located within a web of complex linkages and a...

This paper builds on Granovetter’s distinction between strong and weak ties and responds to recent calls for a more dynamic, processual and thus comprehensive understanding of knowledge transfer in networks with regard to both the nature of the ties that link firms to novel sources of...

This report summarises the research findings from a study into how the successfulintroduction of innovation in motorsport is organised and managed.The motorsport industry is a good example of how creativity, engineering,manufacturing and support services can be combined to produce world...

The biotechnology industry is likely to play a vital role in the future economicprosperity of the United Kingdom, and, as a result, is an important target of UKnational, regional and local government economic policy. This briefing examinesthe characteristics of the sector by looking at 165...

In a global economy, regional economies are exposed to greater economic threats,but also opportunities. In the UK several strategies have been introduced to improvelocal and regional competitiveness. One important strategy is the promotion ofclusters – geographic concentrations of expertise...