Research points to a productivity gap between the UK and some of its majorcompetitors such as France, Germany and the US. To close this gap, it is widelyaccepted that the UK must move towards competing on value and innovation ratherthan on low costs. So how can the UK boost innovation? How can...

In a global economy, regional economies are exposed to greater economic threats,but also opportunities. In the UK several strategies have been introduced to improvelocal and regional competitiveness. One important strategy is the promotion ofclusters – geographic concentrations of expertise...

A productivity gap has been identified between the UK andits leading international competitors such as the US, France,Germany and Japan. The adoption of leading edge workingpractices, it is argued, can help UK firms close that gap.But the UK currently lags behind its major competitors in this...

Offshoring – the practice of sourcing business services fromoverseas – ignites controversy. The loss of UK jobs in businessservices to foreign providers makes headline news. Theimplication is that the UK has become less competitive in thebusiness services market. But what is the reality?...

Improving the UK’s competitive position has become a matter ofnational importance. The DTI Review of UK Manufacturing Policy,published in July 2004, stressed the need for the UK to become ahigh value economy1. Previous studies including the Porter Reportand the DTI Innovation Report2 3 also...

Improving the competitiveness of the UK economyis a national priority. Recent studies – the PorterReport1 and the Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) Innovation Review2 show that the UKlags behind its major competitors in terms ofproductivity. There is a growing consensus thatclosing the...

Unlike studies on the vertical integration-performance relationship, we focus on disintegrating firms and investigate the performance consequences of vertical disintegration. We predict a positive disintegration effect on operating performance which is further conditioned on the initial degree...