Advanced communications and employment creation in rural and peripheral regions: a case study of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Over the last decade, the potential of Advanced Communications (ACs) to contribute to regional economic development has been of increasing interest to policy makers. Recent policy in Europe has focused particularly on how ACs can contribute to job creation in peripheral or less favoured regions, through various forms of teleworking. This paper argues that most policy initiatives in this area have been underlain by a conceptual model which assumes that advanced infrastructure and services will contribute to job creation (or preservation) through improving the competitiveness of existing regional firms, particularly SMEs, through enhancing access to core markets. The paper questions the empirical validity of this model and proposes, on the basis of a case study of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, that in reality employment growth is more likely to result from inward investment - from exogenous firms accessing under-utilised regional attributes such as labour supplies - than through growth in indigenous firms.