Paul Stephen Benneworth

University spin-off policies and economic development in Less successful regions: Learning from two decades of policy practice

Abstract Although there is great interest in the new knowledge economy, less favoured regions seem permanently disadvantaged because they lack a critical mass of knowledge capital to initiate accumulation, growth and economic development processes. This is a problem for policy-makers seeking to promote economic growth and territorial cohesion in such regions. Despite this, examples from two such regions, Newcastle, UK and Twente, the Netherlands, suggests that such companies can be very successful. This paper seeks to develop a conceptual model of how university spin-off companies (USOs) can improve their regional economies. The economic benefits that such companies bring are explored, to identify those elements which can potentially upgrade regional economies through knowledge accumulation, which are termed ‘building up territorial knowledge pools’. This paper concludes by developing a conceptual framework for the operation of the territorial knowledge pool; highlighting four different roles played by USOs in improving regional innovation environments and considering the conceptual and policy implications raised by the framework model.

The new economic geography of old industrial regions: universities as global – local pipelines

The knowledge economy appears to be problematic for old industrial regions, as lock-in and restructuring remove assets for innovation from their territories, as well as for the kinds of policy which can stimulate their economies. In this paper we explore whether universities can provide points of stability within which such locked-in regions can strengthen their innovation systems and attract external investment in knowledge capital. Using the case study of Twente in the eastern Netherlands, we explore whether universities can strengthen their regional innovation systems. We distinguish local networking from external-investment attraction to show that universities can become temporary venues for ‘local buzz’, building networks which become attractive to outside investors and promoting regional innovation. This suggests that an alternative approach to regional innovation policy, which we term ‘promoting smart hybridity’, may be useful in stimulating growth-based restructuring in such regions.

In what sense ‘regional development?’: entrepreneurship, underdevelopment and strong tradition in the periphery

This paper explores whether entrepreneurship can help less successful regions to improve their regional economic situation, without all the benefits that entrepreneurship brings when being ‘stripped out’ to more successful regions. The paper uses the idea that peripheral regions possess qualities of tradition and underdevelopment, and that these help to anchor new firms into these regions, resistant to their concentration in core regions. The paper explores whether particular entrepreneurial events can be regarded as ‘densifying’ the regional entrepreneurial environment, thereby making a positive contribution to its economic development. The paper explores the role of these negative anchors to the entrepreneurial events and the densification process by following a sequence of high-technology spin-out firms in the North East of England. Using a realist methodology attempting to interview all the firms within the sequence which could be found, the paper discovers that quite positive advantages exist within these negative qualities.The paper then considers whether these processes, such as plant closure, might drive entrepreneurship in all regions.

Confusing clusters?: Making sense of the cluster approach in theory and practice

In recent years, there has been the peculiar rise of a new object of study in geography and regional economics, drawing heavily on past ideas but carrying with it the entice of the novel, the cluster. Drawing heavily on well-developed theories of agglomeration and industrial districts, but incorporating advances in the scientific state-of-the-art around learning and innovation, the idea has been widely adopted by policy-makers, and academics are now coming to make sense of the approach. The centrality of policy-makers to the adoption of the idea has manifested itself in a flexible and often confusing approach to the idea, posing the risk that clusters may fail to fulfil their considerable theoretical potential. This confusion exists at a range of scales, and fundamentally hinges on whether clusters are a theory or a practical phenomenon. If clusters are a theory, then questions exist as to what it is a theory of. If clusters are practical entities, then there is practical confusion over whether particular economic configurations are clusters, and if so, then whether or not they are significant as motors of economic development. How can we make sense of an idea so riven with confusion? Indeed, is it possible to make sense of ‘clusters’ in a way that adds value to theories of regional development? In this edited collection, the notion emerges through the papers that this confusion arises because clusters have been a polycentric idea, many people are simultaneously trying to do many different things with the idea. This presents a very chaotic image but, underlying this surface chaos, we argue that substantial progress is being made in identifying points of regularity in the clusters idea. We have witnessed an unprecedented period of theoretical and practical experimentation in clusters, as policy-makers, consultants and academics have tried out new combinations of knowledge and practice to explain and harness persistent beneficial agglomeration in ad-

Exploring the multiple roles of Lund University in strengthening Scania's regional innovation system: Towards institutional learning?

Universities are increasingly seen as potential contributors to regional innovative capacity by serving as local knowledge conduits, bringing global state-of-the-art science and technology into the region. In practice, however, more active university engagement with their regional innovation systems is not as straightforward as it may seem. The article uses examples from a successful case by which less successful regions could be inspired. Our analysis considers how various forms of technological learning intersecting within Lund University around three distinct sectoral engagement efforts have been built up and how this created new structural regional innovation capacity.

Building Localized Interactions Between Universities and Cities Through University Spatial Development

Universities are important players in the global development of knowledge economy, alongside being significant contributors to the economic development of their host cities. They are both significant knowledge enterprises and the suppliers of the human and intellectual capital on which the knowledge-based economy depends. What seems under-explored is how deliberative partnerships between universities and city authorities can develop around projects of mutual benefit, especially based on campus development. In this paper, with the help of five case studies (QUT, MIT, Harvard, Twente and Newcastle universities), we investigate how the spatial development of universities can be one of the main meeting points between the city and university and how it can be used for stimulating economic development and managing growth. These cases show that university—city collaborative initiatives focused on the university properties represent a desire to produce creative and competitive new urban spaces, which reinforce the position of the university and the city in global economy. They also show that these developments need to be jointly managed to avoid undesirable impacts on either side.

Are We Realizing Our Potential? Joining Up Science and Technology Policy in the English Regions

Science policy in England is determined within a governance system in which regional interests and perspectives are over‐looked in favour of short term national excellence. Regional policies and the creation of the new Regional Development Agenciesboth are critically dependent on central government decisions over the spatial location of R&D spending. The scientific governance system lacks a mechanism to ensure that science policy works to improve regional competitiveness and scientific performance; thus, regional diVerences and strengths are overlooked by Whitehall departments in favour of the most vocal and well-networked representatives from a limited number of companies. Uneven scientific development with a lack of diversity in England is not a rational market decision but a continually reinforcing consequence of a chain of government policy decisions.

University engagement with socially excluded communities

There appears to be an almost overwhelming consensus that an increasingly important element of the role of universities in contemporary society is to provide useful knowledge and contribute to emerging societal problems. However, the scale of the academic analysis to date has been surprising in its limitations, focusing individual universities rather than universities as institutions within social systems. This results in slippery rhetorics where universities promote their activities rather than focusing on delivering socially useful knowledge. This chapter explores how universities as societal institutions evolve in parallel with broad transformation in society. The chapter argues that these transformations are placing increasing pressures on universities to engage with society and to seek external validation of the wider benefits of that engagement. To make sense of how these transformations have impacted on the way how universities deliver their societal mission, we focus on one particular form of engagement, with socially excluded communities. The second part of this chapter focuses on excluded communities, and in particular seeks to understand them in their own terms, as communities with agency and interests rather than purely as potential beneficiaries of services which universities may provide. The chapter argues that there is a need to understand higher education societal engagement in terms of the inter-relation of various systemic elements, including the formal engagement activities, the academic communities, the epistemic communities and the policy environment. Moreover, policy should place more focus on understanding and managing higher education as a system rather than as competing elements, and seek to guide that system towards a successful wider transformation.

Strategic Connectivity, Sustainable Development and the New English Regional Governance

This paper examines the institutional impacts of the new English regional sustainability framework and highlights the tension between the need for regional involvement and the central desire to control the debates and intentions of the regional actors. The paper argues that the regional sustainable development frameworks have been worth writing because they have had a strong demonstration effect: they have allowed regional chambers to become more proactive bodies independent of the regional development agencies (which chambers were created to scrutinize). They have also allowed pluralistic conceptions of sustainable regional development to develop in the English regions alongside the economistic perspectives of national policy makers.

Pathways to the Future? An Initial Assessment of RDA Strategies and their Contribution to Integrated Regional Development

The English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were established in April 1999 as part of the wider package of devolution measures. One of the first tasks undertaken by the RDAs was the preparation of Region al Economic Strategies (RESs). These strategies were intended to be a means of securing agreement on a single regional vision and programme of development. However, the RDAs are n ot the only actors present in the English regions and the RESs are not the only region al-level planning exercises. This paper reviews the guidance given to RDAs regarding the preparation and content of RESs. It also provides an initial assessment of the strategy documents an d the extent to which they are coordinated with other regional plans and programmes. The eight RESs differ in terms of their structure, content and emphasis. In general terms, and accepting the constraints under which they were prepared, it is clear that they represent positive attempts to develop strategies for the regions. Key issues for the future include the need for RDAs to agree detailed subject-specific action plans, to establish stronger links with other regional actors and to en sure that they add value to regional development.