A productivity gap has been identified between the UK andits leading international competitors such as the US, France,Germany and Japan. The adoption of leading edge workingpractices, it is argued, can help UK firms close that gap.But the UK currently lags behind its major competitors in this...

This report summarises the discussions that took place during the AIM Management Research Forum on the 29th April 2003 and the subsequent work of four AIM scholars (Dr Kamal Birdi, University of Sheffield; Dr David Denyer, Cranfield School of Management; Dr Kamal Munir, University of Cambridge...

“Overall in the UK we do a lot of networking when trying to innovate, perhaps we don’t do enough to capitalise onit and our general infrastructure is not quite adequate to support it”.(AIM Review on Networking and Innovation, 2003).The major points discussed in the report are:On the...

This paper investigates how firms in the UK might be encouraged to create more value through strategic innovation.Our approach is an integrative one, drawing on both the extant literature - covering the value chain, innovation andthe low skill/low quality equilibrium debate - and the two...

Improving the UK’s competitive position has become a matter ofnational importance. The DTI Review of UK Manufacturing Policy,published in July 2004, stressed the need for the UK to become ahigh value economy1. Previous studies including the Porter Reportand the DTI Innovation Report2 3 also...

Improving the competitiveness of the UK economyis a national priority. Recent studies – the PorterReport1 and the Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) Innovation Review2 show that the UKlags behind its major competitors in terms ofproductivity. There is a growing consensus thatclosing the...

This paper presents the results of a systematic literature review about the adoption of promising practices by organizations. The objective of the study was to gather empirical evidence to explain why the UK rate of promising practices adoption is poor compared with that of its competitors. The...

This chapter advocates the good scientific practice of systematic research syntheses in Management and Organizational Science (MOS). A research synthesis is the systematic accumulation, analysis and reflective interpretation of the full body of relevant empirical evidence related to a question....

Business schools face significant challenges in terms of faculty recruitment, retention and development, with datasuggesting that there are worrying shortfalls in terms of numbers of PhD students graduating and taking up facultypositions in UK business schools (Francis, 2005). Add to this...

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...