Elizabeth Garnsey

High-technology clustering through spin-out and attraction: The Cambridge case

Garnsey E. and Heffernan P. (2005) High‐technology clustering through spin‐out and attraction: the Cambridge case, Regional Studies 39 , 1127–1144. Co‐determinants that have shaped developments in high‐tech centres elsewhere are absent in Cambridge, UK, which thus provides a unique case demonstrating how technology enterprise around a science centre can transform local economic activity. But to capture dimensions of cumulative change requires a longitudinal approach. Here indicators that include rates of formation of new firms and their survival and growth over time are used to chart the transformation of collective capabilities. Emerging and growing areas of local competence are identified from data on the sectoral distribution of activity over time and on clusters of related activity in the Cambridge area that point to the emergence of specialized labour markets. The emergence of clusters of firms is related to serial spin‐out from the university and local businesses. Channels of diffusion of knowledge and influence among local firms are mapped by graphics of spin‐out clusters. Processes mobilizing social capital can be detected in the way technology‐based firms evolved a collective response to local problems that could not be solved by individual enterprise.

Commercializing Generic Technology: The Case of Advanced Materials Ventures

Generic, radical technology is of interest because of its potential for value creation across a broad range of industries and applications. Advanced materials ventures are attracted by this opportunity yet face intensified challenges in commercializing technology of this kind as upstream entrants into distinct established value chains. In this paper, we build on Freeman’s concept of technological innovation as a technological and market matching process to develop a new model of the variables influencing value creation by advanced materials ventures. We then demonstrate the model using evidence from a sample of 10 US advanced materials ventures, including an in-depth case study exemplar. From the literature, our model, and our case study observation, we construct four propositions concerning the success of advanced materials ventures in commercializing radical technology.

Supermarkets and suppliers in the United Kingdom: System integration, information and control

Abstract This paper raises the issue of control in new organizational configurations where information and communication technology is the critical enabler of business integration. It is organized around two guiding questions; how and why major U.K. supermarkets have taken control and dominance of the food market, and the role of information technology and accounting information in replacing market relationships. The study illustrates the way in which markets can be structured and controlled by strategic reconfiguration of supply sources and customer outlets.

Analysing Competence: Gender and Identity at Work

Competence approaches are among the techniques that claim to measure the behaviour, skills, knowledge and understanding crucial to effective managerial performance. It is claimed that competence approaches empower and develop managers while enabling them to meet organizational objectives. Since the bases for the techniques are avowedly scientific, they are said to provide organizations with a gender neutral form of assessment. In this paper we construct a theoretical framework in terms of which these claims can be analysed and assessed. Using this framework, we examine the competence approach as it has been implemented in six organizations in relation to the claim to objectivity.

Product and process innovation in biopharmaceuticals: a new perspective on development

Developing new products and processes is increasingly a focal point of competition and often requires the development and successful implementation of novel process technologies. The process development and production of a new biological entity are significantly more complex than those for small molecule drugs. Conventional new product development models in the literature on firm level innovation fail to explain the nature of development projects for biopharmaceuticals. This paper makes the case that a new perspective is required to understand the management of product and process development in biopharmaceuticals. An explanatory model is proposed for this purpose.

Proximity and complexity in the emergence of high technology industry: The oxbridge comparison

Abstract This paper examines similarities and differences in the emergence of high-tech enterprise and the growth of associated industry in Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire since the 1960s. These cases are viewed as instances of a generic phenomenon: the emergence and growth of the science-based ‘innovative milieu’. A conceptual scheme drawn from complexity studies is used to introduce explanatory coherence into the apparently scattered and disconnected factors relevant to the genesis of high-tech milieux.

Funding for innovation in small firms: The role of government

Abstract This paper examines some of the issues facing innovative small firms. The shortage of enterprise funding for such small firms can be explained by the uncertainty associated with such ventures,uncertainty which is magnified in the case of hightechnology firms. We characterise the uncertainty as an information gap (both technological and commercial) which is exacerbated by an asymmetry of interest between the founders of a firm and private sector sources of finance. We explore the sources of this uncertainty and examine the effect that one Government scheme, the Small Firms Merit Awards for Research and Technology (SMART), has had in offsetting such problems. Some suggestions for improvements in policy in the light of the experience of SMART are put forward.

Entrepreneurs and technology diffusion How diffusion research can benefit from a greater understanding of entrepreneurship

Abstract This study builds on the work of Schumpeter and others who have recognised the role of entrepreneurs in the formation of entirely new industries around technological innovation. With this in mind, it critically reviews diffusion research, finding this work to be lacking in its treatment of entrepreneurship and its ability to integrate the wide range of factors that affect the diffusion process. In an effort to address these theoretical gaps, this study draws on management literature on the growth of the entrepreneurial firm, which puts entrepreneurs at the centre of analysis, and serves to integrate many of the traditional concerns of diffusion research. The authors hope that the proposed analytical framework will be applied to future case studies of technology diffusion in order that we might continue to better understand and explain the rate of technological advance in society.

Emergence and growth of high-tech activity in Cambridge and Grenoble

This paper compares the genesis and growth of two well-known European high-technology centres, Cambridge in the UK and Grenoble in France. This paper attempts to explain why, despite strong differences in terms of initial conditions, Cambridge and Grenoble present similarities, sometimes striking, related to the creation of their respective science parks and to the growth of high-tech activities in the wider area. In the early 1970s Cambridge was a typical British university town while Grenoble had a strong industrial past and a tradition of relationships between university and industry. Despite these differences, high-tech activities emerged at the same time in both places as a unique local dynamic milieu. The paper shows the similarities and differences in the paths of development followed in both centres. Current constraints on growth are described and new dynamics of growth are outlined.

Combining Resource‐Based and Evolutionary Theory to Explain the Genesis of Bio‐networks

This paper examines new firms creating innovative networks to support their development in emerging industries. Resource‐based and evolutionary theories are combined to explain the genesis of a new business ecosystem. Two case studies of biopharm ventures developing drugs against cancer showed how participants altered their selection environment as they enhanced their networks capability. Resource building took place at the firm and network level through collaborative business models involving innovative contractors. This approach uncovered previously unnoticed features of networks for drug development: resource asynchronies were found to be a stimulus to innovation in development networks, as in the Penrosean firm.