The measurement of company performance poses several challenges. Three critical ones are: balancing short-term and long-term performance, the need to use multiple measures to capture the broad meaning of performance, and finding the right peer comparators. We argue that truly sustainable long...

Within the debate on the UK productivity gap regulation has been identified as a potential cause. This paper investigates the effect of regulation on productivity by exclusively focusing on indirect, unintended and/or unforeseen effects. First we develop a conceptual framework, then we use this...

This paper seeks to explain why some subsidiaries are isolated from the knowledge transfer activities within multinational corporations. Applying a new theoretical and empirical approach to intra-firm knowledge transfers, we argue that differences in learning capabilities and in-group-out-group...

Regional agglomerations or clusters of specialised firms and other organisations, in particular industries, have beenaround for centuries and have been a subject of research for decades (for an overview see Porter 1998a: 206-208;Enright 1998, 2003). Obviously, this is true for traditional...

This brief Report provides a summary of the initial findings of a two-year study that has investigated the perceptions and satisfaction of consumers with the local grocery shopping facilities they have available. The Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences...

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...

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...