Post Porter: Where Does the UK Go From Here?

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 and Dr Jaideep Prabhu, University of Cambridge, under the guidance of Professor Andy Neely, Associate Director of AIM).The major points discussed in the report are:1. It is people and organisations that innovate, not economies or sectors.2. There is a need to consider intra-firm issues as well as extra-firm issues when debating and formulating policy. Much of the analysis that has been carried out to date (e.g. the Porter and Ketels’ report) concentrates primarily on the extra-firm issues, thereby ignoring the role that intra-firm issues play into translating policy into action.3. There is substantial evidence that the UK can be described as moderately innovative at best, both in terms of product and process innovation. Particular areas of concern include – patenting, commercialization, adoption and exploitation of technology and management process innovations.4. There is widespread agreement that the UK cannot continue to compete on the basis of low cost and that companies have to shift their focus to higher value and innovation.5. There are numerous geographically dispersed exemplars that illustrate how Government interventions can be targeted at helping specific sectors within economies grow – e.g. Acer Computers in Taiwan, Nokia in Finland, the Dutch Flower Industry.[...]