Job creation and destruction estimates are made for Northern Ireland manufacturing using the ARD database. International comparisons suggest job creation and destruction rates in Northern Ireland were below those elsewhere. Job turnover rates exhibit the standard properties, however, with...

There is now general agreement that inter-firm cooperation through networks, partnerships and supply-chains can, by facilitating knowledge exchange and reducing transaction costs, contribute both to innovation and company competitiveness. Dense patterns of ‘association’, reinforced by links...

The evaluation of the impact of public policies to improve the performance of the small business sector has provoked a great deal of debate and research activity in recent years. The debate can be categorised in two broad ways. First, it can be seen in terms of the actual impact measures and...

In the context of the global production network (GPN) paradigm, this paper considers the combination of local and global factors which have contributed to the development of the ICT clusters in three small countries. Developments in each country reflect the combination of local advantages in...

Innovation grants are a ubiquitous feature of industrial support regimes across the industrial world. Evidence on their effectiveness is less widespread, however, due to a lack of consistent longitudinal or panel data on innovation outcomes and company performance. In this paper we investigate...

Hewitt-Dundas N., Andreosso-O'Callaghan B., Crone M., Murray J. and Roper S. (2005) Selling global, buying local? What determines the sourcing patterns of multinational plants in Ireland?, Regional Studies 39 , 225-239. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have played an important, if not crucial,...

This paper uses UK plant-level survey data to examine the relative importance of industry concentration, technological opportunity and locational factors in determining innovation propensity. <p> The results suggest no evidence that industry concentration has any significant positive effect on...</p>