The realisation that fast growing SMEs are major contributors to economic prosperity has seen these firms being increasingly attributed with a more central role in the development of wealth, innovation, employment and national competitiveness. Spatial proximity often positively affects knowledge...

Ever since the Bolton Report (1971), academics and policy makers have looked towards the small business sector as a primary source of economic development, innovation and growth. The realisation that fast growing SMEs are major contributors to economic prosperity has also seen these firms being...

Universities are increasingly being encouraged to take a leading role in entrepreneurial creation, whilst the entrepreneurship literature recognises the importance of economic development policy. Recent research has focused on evaluating roles and interactions of government policy, Higher...

Objectives This research explores the relationship between young firms, their growth orientation-intention and a range of relationships which can be seen to provide business support. Prior-work Research indicates that networks impact the firm’s ability to secure resources (Sirmon and Hitt 2003;...

There is a clear research issue for Wales regarding the roles and interactions of government policy, HEIs, SMEs and the creation and dissemination of innovation. A study of the views of key policy makers concerning innovation and entrepreneurship in Wales is undertaken, especially with regard to...

It is increasingly understood that learning and thus innovation often occurs via highly interactive, iterative, network-based processes. Simultaneously, economic development policy is increasingly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a means of generating growth, creating a...

Universities are increasingly encouraged to take a leading role in economic development, particularly through innovation. Simultaneously, economic development policy itself is increasingly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), creating overlapping interactions in the roles of...

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...

<title/> Interest in Barnett formula reform is on the rise again, particularly because of changes in the parties in power in the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the tighter public spending heralded by the recent Comprehensive Spending Review. This article looks at whether, and to what...