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...

We investigate how the research standing of universities informs academic researchers’ engagement with industry via collaborative research, contract research and consulting. We argue that the establishment of university-industry relationships is informed by three factors: faculty perceived...

Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with...

This paper discusses the theory and evidence behind the logic of business process outsourcing, with a specific focus on human resource outsourcing (HRO). Market analysts project rapid growth in the global market for HRO, from around $30 billion in 2005 to just over $40 billion in 2008. The paper...

Changing the nature of governance arrangements comprises one element in the public service reform programme. New governance forms include arm’s-length agencies, multi-organisational partnerships, hybrids and company structures. In theory, changed governance arrangements offer benefits in terms...

As strategy research has been exploring the dynamic, social and situated nature of the strategy process, so has the role of learning increasingly been recognised as a central feature of strategizing practice. This paper contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of strategizing practice by...

This paper considers the impact that information and communicationtechnology (ICT) has on firms’ choices over organisational form. In particular,the decision over whether to produce in-house or outsource services,and the decision over the location of activity. ICT reduces the transactionand...

In this paper, we consider how a better understanding of entrepreneurial activities can help explain how firm and industry boundaries change over time; and how a more complete understanding of boundary setting can help us understand where entrepreneurial activities are directed. We argue that...

The concept of “vertical architecture” defines the scope of a firm and the extent to which it is open to final and intermediate markets. A firm can make or buy inputs, and transfer outputs downstream or sell them. Permeable vertical architectures are partly integrated and partly open to the...