Ha Henny Romijn

Determinants of innovation capability in small electronics and software firms in southeast England

The paper explores determinants of innovation capability in small UK electronics and software firms. An experimental innovation index is used alongside conventional proxies of innovative performance. These indicators are correlated with variables capturing a range of potentially important internal sources—such as education, prior work experience and R&D effort—as well as measures of intensity of external interactions and proximity in network relations. The findings support the importance of R&D, the key role played by the regional science base in nurturing high-tech spin-offs, and proximity to suppliers. However, no support is found for the current policy fashion of encouraging regional networks revolving around firms in similar business activities and close customer relations.

Innovation, Networking and Proximity: Lessons from Small High Technology Firms in the UK

The article explores how the innovative performance of small high-tech firms relates to their external networking activities, and whether geographical proximity in their network relations matters. Data from a small sample of electronics firms and software developers in South East England are used to construct indicators of innovativeness, which are correlated with variables capturing intensity of external interactions and proximity benefits. The regional science base is found to have played a key role in nurturing new high-tech ventures, but science parks had not contributed to this. Interaction with parties with complementary capabilities such as suppliers and service providers is also associated with high innovative performance. However, the findings do not support the current policy fashion of encouraging regional networks revolving around firms in similar business activities and close customer relations.

The empty rhetoric of poverty reduction at the base of the pyramid

This article criticizes recent Bottom (or, Base) of the Pyramid (BoP) approaches for ‘cancelling out politics’ by obscuring unequal power relations at different societal levels and painting an optimistic picture of win-win outcomes that will make (some of) the world’s biggest corporations richer while simultaneously adding a few crucial pennies to the pockets of the poor. The article is thus positioned within a growing stream of literature critical of BoP ideas, but it goes further than existing critiques by arguing that the current BoP discourse serves an important ideological function for global capital, specifically producing a discursive depoliticization of its corporate interventions in the lives of the world’s poor. We argue that the poverty-reduction outcome of a BoP venture is contingent on its practice on the ground, which will inevitably be shaped by local and global power relations. In particular, we point to three cultural-political issues overlooked by the BoP discourse, which are vital in understanding the practice of business ventures at the BoP: adverse power relationships within poor communities; social-epistemological hierarchies between the poor and outsiders who administer poverty-reduction interventions; and local vulnerabilities induced by global currents in products, services, information and ideologies.

Strategic niche management : towards a policy tool for sustainable development

Abstract Strategic niche management (SNM) is a recently developed approach that could help induce a broad socio-technical transition towards more sustainable development. It is designed to facilitate the introduction and diffusion of new sustainable technologies through protected societal experiments in fields such wind energy, biogas, public transport systems, electric vehicle transport and eco-friendly food production. A major challenge in SNM concerns the processes by which such experiments can evolve into viable market niches and ultimately contribute to a broader shift towards sustainable development. This paper sheds more light on this issue by systematically consolidating the main SNM studies, and by bringing in new insights from the literature that is in some sense complementary to SNM. These are studies on the development and commercialisation of radical innovations in large companies, and literature about infant industry protection and broader industrialisation processes in developing countries. A number of suggestions for implementing SNM are given.

Acquisition of technological capability in development : a quantitative case study of Pakistan's capital goods sector

There is by now a substantial body of literature that points to the importance of technological capability acquisition for industrial development. This literature, however, is almost exclusively based on qualitative case studies. This paper addresses the lack of objective quantitative measurement and testing. Using data from a survey among capital goods manufacturers in Pakistan, it develops quantitative proxies for technological capability and various learning mechanisms that are believed to contribute to its emergence. These are used in a regression analysis aimed at finding statistical support for the contention in the literature that capability results from an effortful learning process, and at analyzing the main dimensions of that process.

Upscaling of business model experiments in off-grid PV solar energy in India

Rapidly developing countries like India face numerous challenges related to social and environmental sustainability, which are associated with their fast economic growth and rising energy demand, climate change, and widening disparities between the rich and the poor. Recently, a number of claims have been made in the literature that the prospects of alternative development pathways in emerging economies in Asia are becoming more likely, and that these economies might even leapfrog Western initiatives. This paper contributes by reporting on the five most visible and established initiatives in the area of off-grid PV solar energy in India, specifically homing in on the innovative business models that are evolving. We develop a new typology of upscaling dimensions in order to analyze these five initiatives. They are found to be quite successful, but have difficulty in terms of reaching the poorest of the poor (deep upscaling) and bringing about required institutional change (institutional upscaling).

SME clusters, acquisition of technological capabilities and development : concepts, practice and policy lessons

The paper contributes to the current policy debate about promoting regional economic growth and competitiveness of small and medium industrial enterprises in development. An analytical framework is elaborated, which integrates complementary insights from existing approaches that have been used as a basis for policy design in this area. These are: the meso-level collective efficiency approach and the micro-level technological capability approach. The new framework gives insight into the different ways in which firm-level technological learning could be fostered through geographical clustering. It also provides new directions for policy. An empirical case study of farm equipment manufacturing in Pakistans Punjab Province is used to illustrate the added value of the new approach.

Technology Support for Small-scale Industry in Developing Countries: A Review of Concepts and Project Practices

The paper is a review of approaches towards institutional technology support for small-scale manufacturing enterprises in developing countries since the early 1970s. Early programmes tended to suffer from a number of weaknesses, stemming from a limited conceptualization of technology and an inadequate understanding of the role of the small-scale sector in industrial development more broadly. There was also a lack of practical experience with project implementation. However, in recent years important advances have been made on all these fronts. Four features of recent technology assistance programmes that have tended to be associated with success are discussed, and illustrated with evidence from different projects. Broadly, successful projects: (a) embrace the notion that durable competitiveness of small producers in a competitive economic environment requires that they develop internal capabilities to effectively assimilate, use and adapt product and process technologies; (b) are demand-driven; (c) target the assistance to groups of producers with common interests and problems, and help them to organize themselves in collective bodies that can evolve into self-help institutions; and (d) include appropriate incentive structures based on market principles.

What Works, and Why, in Business Services Provision for SMEs: Insights from evolutionary theory

Purpose – Programmes providing services for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises are important. Yet, quality and impact of many of these programmes lag behind expectations. This paper attempts to shed light on the reasons behind this disappointing state of affairs.Design/methodology/approach – Modern theories of innovation and services marketing management are adopted as a conceptual framework, because these theories generate major insights about how business services should ideally be provided. The usefulness of this framework for analysing business service programmes is demonstrated through its application to one particular programme, the small business service (SBS) in the UK.Findings – Using this approach, the paper identifies several key issues. Major weaknesses in programme structure and implementation practices emerge, mainly revolving around customer focus, incentive problems and organisational issues, and the lack of a systems perspective.Research limitations/implications – Given the suitability o...

Development of new supply chains : insights from strategic niche management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of supply chain design from the perspective of complex dynamic systems. Unlike extant studies that use formal simulation modelling and associated methodologies rooted in the physical sciences, it adopts a framework rooted in the social sciences, strategic niche management, which provides rich insights into the behavioural aspects of complex innovation dynamics of emerging supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – The use of the framework is illustrated by means of a case study about the development of a new biofuels supply chain in East Africa.Findings – Three key dynamic processes are found to be at the core of new supply chain development: networking, learning and the management of actor expectations. The case analysis suggests the need to actively manage these processes and suggests possible ways of doing so.Research limitations/implications – Generalisability is limited since the research is based on one case study. Additional case st...