Helen Lawton Smith

There are two sides to every story: Innovation and collaboration within networks of large and small firms

Abstract Inter-firm collaboration for innovation increasingly appears as a industrial response to changing economic and technological conditions both in the UK and internationally. This paper examines such responses, particularly at an informal level between small and large firms, in the light of recent arguments about economic and technological imperatives, disorganised capitalism, control versus cooperation and the growing debate over the significance of networks. Using a case study approach, the motives and problems of firms in such relationships are explored, with special reference to the UK context.

Universities, Innovation, and Territorial Development: A Review of the Evidence

In many countries, universities are emerging as the focal point for the formulation and delivery of policies on innovation, cluster development, human capital formation and development, entrepreneurship, and governance. The author provides a critique of arguments as to why universities have come to be seen as crucial stakeholders in the innovation process, and, in particular, should be territorial actors. It is argued that ascribing a central role in contemporary innovation systems to universities needs to be done with caution, and cannot be understood in isolation from political pressure.

The research university, entrepreneurship and regional development: Research propositions and current evidence

The objective of this paper is to set a framework for examining the conditions under which a research university becomes more than a latent asset [Power, D., and A. Malmberg. 2008. The contribution of universities to innovation and economic development: In what sense a regional problem? Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 1, no. 2: 233–46.] in regional economies. The framework is comprised of four propositions used to identify drivers of change, evidence of change and evidence of impact. As an exemplar, we examine the University of Oxfords growing engagement in its local region. This paper shows that the convergence between the interests of the university and the local high-tech economy is particularly associated with broader technological trends and with the Universitys capacity to draw on national funding programmes designed to stimulate ‘third-stream’ activities, including entrepreneurship courses and regional networking activities.

University-Industry Interactions: the Case of the UK Biotech Industry

This papers focus is on both the geography of entrepreneurship and on industry‐collaborative links internationally, nationally and at the local level in the UK biotech industry, the worlds second largest biotech industry. The paper reports on a pilot survey of the UK biotech industry. The survey has two goals: to understand the business goals of the firms and to examine the relative importance of local conditions to the business of biotech. Further evidence on these two themes comes from two studies of Oxfordshire, one of the UKs centres of biomedical science and biotechnology. The first is a survey of the countys biotech firms. The second, of academic spin‐offs, demonstrates how the business of biotech in the UK is intimately tied to the national innovation system, which in turn is dependent upon highly localised elite science which in turn signals to world elites that the region is a hot‐spot for innovation.

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.

Uncropped edges of arable fields managed for biodiversity do not increase weed occurrence in adjacent crops

Ten experimental management regimes, designed to quantify benefits to weed control and wildlife conservation on uncropped field edges of expanded width, were examined for effects on the weed flora within adjacent arable crops. The treatments involved cutting, sowing and herbicide regimes, with differing effects on plant and invertebrate populations. The relative abundance of all plant species within the adjacent crop edge was monitored using permanent quadrats between 1987 and 1991. The field edge management regimes affected neither the total relative plant abundance, nor the relative abundance of most common species, within the adjacent crop edge. While frequencies of Avena spp were initially greatest adjacent to margins cut in spring and autumn, this effect was lost through time, and the greater abundance of Phleum pratense and Leucanthemum vulgare adjacent to the field edges in which they had been sown presented no threat to good husbandry. The management of uncropped arable field edges to enhance biodiversity is very unlikely to affect weed levels within the crop, especially where they contain, or are sown with, non-invasive perennial species.

The geography of talent: entrepreneurship and local economic development in Oxfordshire

This paper considers the interaction of stocks of talent, entrepreneurship, processes of institutionalization and networking in local development. The main theme is that although innovation necessarily involves social networks and collective action, it should not be overlooked that the quality of those networks is dependent on the quality or talent of individuals who have initiated particular developments. The paper argues that the literature on local and regional development tends to overlook the agency of individuals and that to do so ignores processes that lead to the distinctive characteristics of localities. Using Oxfordshire as a case study, it demonstrates how the expertise of talented individuals has been translated in the fastest growing high-tech economy in the UK. This has brought visibility to the countys techno-economic and institutional achievements feeding into high-level professional and political policy agendas.

Universities, Innovation and the Economy

List of Tables List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. What Kinds of University Systems 2. The Regional Economy and the University 3. The Measurement of University and Industry Links and Economic Development 4. Universities in National Innovation Systems in Europe 5. Universities in Innovation Systems in North America 6. Universities, Labour Markets and Economic Development in Europe and the USA 7. Case Study Places: Europe - Grenoble and Oxfordshire 8. Case Study Places: USA- Stanford, Louisville and Princeton 9. Conclusions References Index

The US Biotechnology Industry: Industry Dynamics and Policy

The inseparability of the biotechnology industry and the state is a central theme in the analysis of the location and performance of biotechnology industry in the US and elsewhere. This paper reports on the results of a survey of US biotechnology companies looking particularly at their assessment of needs, barriers, strategies, and government programs. The paper shows that although there is an increasing level of federal and state intervention, there are considerable barriers faced by biotechnology firms, which may or may not be resolved in the near future because of the nature of the business of biotechnology, which involves uncertainties at every stage of innovation and commercialisation.

Triple helix and regional development: a perspective from Oxfordshire in the UK

This paper illustrates that distinctive patterns of regional development can be understood as resulting from the relative dominance of the three components in the triple helix model at any one time. This approach can be used to understand why high growth sectors, such as biotechnology, are concentrated at particular locations. Using the example of the biotechnology sector in Oxfordshire (UK), we examine how differences in formal (e.g. institutional arrangements) and informal networks are influenced by broader geographical, political, economic and social environments. These differences produce distinctive regional forms of the triple helix model. Oxfordshire is a national centre of the sector, having the key ingredients of a concentration of universities and government laboratories, heavily supported by government, and a growing number of biotech firms. The distinctive features of the Oxfordshire variant are that the role of Oxford University, a world centre for biomedical research, is secondary at the regional level rather than being dominant as might be expected and that the availability of skills, underplayed in traditional presentations of the model, is far more significant.