With this study we evaluate the impact of different training methods (TMs) on small and medium-enterprises’ (SMEs’) business performances, utilising a dataset of 3521. We consider the relationship between the satisfaction SMEs have towards their employees’ training needs being met by a...

Current arguments in Australia concerning horizontal fiscal equalisation may help inform the debate in the United Kingdom concerning possible changes to the Barnett formula and the establishment of financial relations with any regional governments in England. Although Australia is a...

Government procurement policy in the UK is an uneasy mixture of different policy legacies, where the dominant objectives of cost-efficiency and value for money compete with alternatives which emphasise public procurement as central to innovation policy and/or a critical demand-side instrument in...

The author examines the role of workforce development -- in the form of skills upgrading and training -- in integrating and embedding foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economy of Wales. He finds that by far the most important deciding factor in choosing Wales as an investment location is...

Universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) have come to be regarded as key sources of knowledge utilisable in the pursuit of economic growth. Although there have been numerous studies assessing the economic and innovation impact of HEIs, there has been little systematic analysis...

Despite the rapid growth of the small and medium-sized enterprise sector since the 1970s, rates of entrepreneurial activity in the UK remain moderate by international standards. Since its arrival in 1997 the Labour government in the UK has taken steps to tackle barriers to entrepreneurship by...