Search

Recent legislation in the UK has placed an expectation on social purpose organisations (SPOs) to consider, monitor and evaluate the societal value they generate. However, meaningful engagement with the Social Value Act by the third sector is relatively low, which reflects both conceptual and methodological shortcomings. This paper describes a programme of action research which has developed a user-friendly tool to assist smaller SPOs to explore, evidence and value the benefits that they produce for society. Conceptualising social value through the lens of the localism, personalisation, deliberative democracy and social innovation agendas, the paper describes the process and experience of applying a Social Return Assessment tool and the lessons learnt for the three SPOs involved, the third sector, and for commissioning bodies. Recommendations reflect the need for a standardised monitoring and evaluation framework tailored to specific third sector interest groups and networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy analysis provides multiple methods and tools for generating and transforming policy-relevant information and supporting policy evolution to address emerging social problems. In this study, a bibliometric analysis of a large number of studies on historical policy analysis was performed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the distribution and evolution of policy problems in different fields among countries. The analysis indicates that policy analysis has been a great concern for scholars in recent two decades, and is involved in multiple disciplines, among which the dominant ones are medicine, environment, energy and economy. The major concerns of policy analysts and scholars are human health needs, environmental pressures, energy consumption caused by economic growth and urbanization, and the resulting demand for sustainable development. The multidisciplinary dialog implies the complicated real-world social problems that calls for more endeavors to develop a harmonious society. A global profiling for policy analysis demonstrates that the central policy problems and the corresponding options align with national development, for example, developing countries represented by China are faced with greater environmental pressures after experiencing extensive economic growth, while developed countries such as the USA and the UK pay more attention to the social issues of health and economic transformation. Exploring the differences in policy priorities among countries can provide a new inspiration for further dialog and cooperation on the development of the international community in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses time series data on UK book sales to establish what correlation exists between the national income of a country and its sales of books. This is tested by comparing series data in real terms for GDP per capita and for various data series for the UK market, including sales invoiced by publishers and point of sale data on consumer purchasing. The first period, from 1985 to 1999, shows a strong relationship between total sales and GDP per capita. In the second period, from 2001 to 2015, the link appears to disappear when we examine invoiced sales from publishers, even before the impact of the 2008 crisis. This is also including the growth of digital sales towards the end of the period. The direct consumer data shows sales tracking GDP until the onset of the financial crisis; thereafter the only trade sector to have kept pace with GDP is children's, and this contrasts with the areas of adult fiction and non-fiction. Have we therefore seen a structural shift in the book market? If we have passed peak book, what has brought about this uncoupling of book sales from economic growth? Factors are considered including changes in retail, competition from other media, and a prioritization of experience over the accumulation of stuff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is acknowledged to be important for economic growth and as an everyday life-skill, however several influential reports have suggested that education could do more to harness creative talent. Creative cognition literature suggests the lack of creativity is at least partly the result of 'fixation' (difficulty in generating novel ideas due to imagination being 'structured' by existing knowledge). This paper focuses on the secondary (students aged 11-16 years) design and technology (D&T) context in the UK. Here we examine whether teacher practice can contribute to fixation by focusing on one specific facet of teacher practice in D&T; the use of product analysis to inform the generation of creative design ideas. Data is drawn from the preliminary phase of a research and intervention project from interviews with D&T teachers ( N = 14), students ( N = 126) and lesson observations ( N = 10) and an analysis of documents and student work. Product analysis is widely used at different points in design projects but, as is shown, in all cases current practice can lead to fixation, as thinking is constrained down specific paths and tasks are at best at procedural rather than comprehension level. The implications of these findings and tentative ways forward for practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential for a causal relationship between certain supply-side policies and UK output and productivity growth between 1970 and 2009. We outline an open economy DSGE model of the UK in which productivity growth is determined by the tax and regulatory environment faced by firms. This model is estimated and tested using simulation-based econometric methods (indirect inference). Using Monte Carlo methods we investigate the power of the test as we apply it, allowing the construction of uncertainty bounds for the structural parameter estimates and hence for the quantitative implications of policy reform in the estimated model. We also test and confirm the model's identification, thus ensuring that the direction of causality is unambiguously from policy to productivity. The results offer robust empirical evidence that temporary changes in policies underpinning the business environment can have sizeable effects on economic growth over the medium term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship—defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very similar approach to that of Fritsch and Mueller (Regional Studies, 38(8), 961–976, 2004), confirming their findings that the employment impact of new firm formation is in three discrete phases. Then, using data for Great Britain, the paper shows the employment impact of new firm formation is significantly positive in the high-enterprise counties of Great Britain. However, for the low-enterprise counties, it shows that new firm formation has a negative effect on employment. Of the 15 low-enterprise regions, eight are Scottish (of nine Scottish regions in our data base) and three are North East Counties (of four). Our findings imply that having the “wrong type of entrepreneurship” is indeed possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts the effects of trade, inward FDI and technological development upon the demand for skilled and unskilled workers in the UK. By focussing on industry level data panel data on smaller firms, the paper also contrasts these effects with those generated by large scale domestic investment. The analysis is placed within the broader context of shifts in British industrial policy, which has seen significant shifts from sectoral to horizontal measures and towards stressing the importance of SMEs, clusters and new technology, all delivered at the regional scale. This, however, is contrasted with continued elements of British and EU regional policy which have emphasised the attraction of inward investment in order to alleviate regional unemployment. The results suggest that such policies are not naturally compatible; that while both trade and FDI benefit skilled workers, they have adverse effects on the demand for unskilled labour in the UK. At the very least this suggests the need for a range of policies to tackle various targets (including in this case unemployment and social inclusion) and the need to integrate these into a coherent industrial strategy at various levels of governance, whether regional and/or national. This has important implications for the form of any ‘new’ industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to examine the Wagner's law validity, and whether it can explain the U.K. public spending expansion for the period 1850–2010. According to Wagner's Law, economic development is the key determinant to public sector growth. Accordingly, the public sector grows overproportionally compared to national income when economies develop. We test this hypothesis for the UK. The data covers a period in which the U.K. economy experienced increased economic growth, government spending and met most of the assumption of Wagner's Law (industrialisation, urbanisation, increased population). Furthermore, the long data set ensures the reliability of our results in terms of statistical and economic conclusions. We apply unit root tests, unit root tests with structural breaks, cointegration techniques and the Granger causality test. Our results indicate a presence of a long run relationship between national income and government spending, while the causality is bi-directional, thus we find support for Wagner's and Keynesian hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Endogenous growth models raise fundamental questions about the nature of human creativity, and the sorts of resources, skills, and knowledge inputs that shift the frontier of technology and production possibilities. Many argue that the experience of early British industrialization supports the thesis that economic advances depend on specialized scientific training, the acquisition of costly human capital, and the role of elites. This paper examines the contributions of different types of knowledge to industrialization, by assessing the backgrounds, education and inventive activity of major contributors to technological advances in Britain during the crucial period between 1750 and 1930. The results indicate that scientists, engineers or technicians were not well-represented among the cadre of important British inventors, and their contributions remained unspecialized until very late in the nineteenth century. The informal institution of apprenticeship and learning on the job provided effective means to enable productivity and innovation. For developing countries today, the implications are that costly investments in specialized human capital resources might be less important than incentives for creativity, flexibility, and the ability to make incremental adjustments that can transform existing technologies into inventions and innovations that are appropriate for prevailing domestic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using long historical data for Britain over the period 1620-2006, this paper seeks to explain the importance of innovative activity, population growth and other factors in inducing the transition from the Malthusian trap to the post-Malthusian growth regime. Furthermore, the paper tests the ability of two competing second-generation endogenous growth models to account for the British growth experience. The results suggest that innovative activity was an important force in shaping the Industrial Revolution and that the British growth experience is consistent with Schumpeterian growth theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to numerous empirical research studies, a general consensus has been reached on the effects of labor unionization on the economy such as unemployment and economic growth (GDP). However, most of the previous research examines the effects of labor unionization on the U.S. and U.K. labor markets using multiple regression models. By applying different statistical tools (multivariate cointegration analysis and vector error correction model) to Korean data, this paper finds: (1) there is a long-run equilibrium linkage among unionization, unemployment and economic growth; and (2) unionization unidirectionally and significantly Granger-causes unemployment and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of International Entrepreneurship is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Innovation is an integral part of economic development in developed economies. In the post 2008 period, a key policy agenda is that of sustainable development, which calls for innovation in all aspects of value-chains. In this paper, we focus on innovation from the biotech-pharma perspective to see whether or not this will lead to a sustainable future for the regions where there are clusters of firms in this sector. We examine data from a recently completed European Union study of innovation in the Healthcare sector from the UK and Switzerland, countries with an historical base in pharma, to understand how innovation pathways vary at the regional level in the broader life sciences, which incorporate biotech and more. Innovation in the healthcare sector in two regions, Oxfordshire in the UK and Zurich in Switzerland are compared. We contextualize our discussion by drawing on studies that focus on the sector in the US, specifically Boston. The analytical framework comprises three elements: innovation systems and national and regional economic development theories are the first two, followed by approaches which consider organizational or institutional activity. This framework is used to help explain and understand the complexity of how innovation is organized at the sub-national level. The overall context is that it is increasing becoming a condition for government financing of research that it has more immediate application in industry or have the possibility of commercialisation (e.g., translational research). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few developed economies have a full free trade agreement (FTA) with China. This study employs one GTAP model and builds an extended environmental multi-region input–output model to investigate a hypothetical China-UK FTA, concerning embodied industrial emissions of SO2, PM2.5, NOX, and NH3. The economic sectors are also classified based on their embodied pollution intensity and trade advantage index under various FTA scenarios. Results show that the UK's GDP and welfare and China's welfare will increase, along with changes in their trade structures. Overall, this FTA brings about larger net impacts on embodied emissions of SO2 than on PM2.5, NOX and NH3, and both countries are net importers of the latter three pollutants. Key sectors such as non-metallic mineral products, chemical products, and agriculture are inclined to become less competitive and less polluting under the FTA. The inclusion of agri-food sectors exhibits slight counteracting effects in general. The findings are of policy importance as they provide insights into how best to target key sectors, seeking a balance between trade development and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a widespread interest in the economic development role played by 'Bohemian' occupations and the 'creative class'. It is believed that creative people and occupations generate external effects which foster economic growth. However, the degree to which these externalities affect production and consumption is as yet not clear. As part of this debate, we investigate the ability of creative individuals to internalize the rents accruing from creative occupations in comparison with other types of activities. In order to do this, the paper analyzes the employment opportunities and wages earned by graduates in artistic occupations (Bohemians) and compares them with those of non-Bohemians. Using a uniquely longitudinal dataset of UK university graduates, we examine these issues using a Mincer-type framework, both in the short and in medium term after graduation. Our findings suggest that there is a persistent gap between Bohemian and non-Bohemians in terms of both the wages earned and employment status. This observation sharpens the need to better understanding the nature and extent of the externalities associated with the creative class which remains an unresolved issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between organisation structure and innovation performance in a large sample of UK small and medium-sized enterprises. It asks whether there is an optimal structure and whether this differs between different firm environments and between young and older firms. We find that the influences on the ability to innovate differ from those on the commercialisation of innovations. We show that decentralised decision-making, supported by a formal structure and written plans, supports the ability to innovate in most circumstances and is superior to other structures. We also find some evidence that young firms operating in high technology sectors with informal structures have a greater tendency to be innovative. In addition, we find very few differences between young and older firms in terms of their optimal structures in low technology sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of performance and the evaluation of social change efforts are vital yet challenging issues for practitioners and researchers in the social sector. Although tools exist to measure social value, they tend to focus on converting non-monetary costs and benefits into monetary terms to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of operations. The capabilities approach provides a value-based alternative that could potentially enable a broader assessment of a project’s impact; this approach encapsulates societal-level factors, beneficiary perspectives, and a more holistic view of a beneficiary’s life. Ultimately, our goal is to raise the following question in the social sector field: what might a capabilities approach to social value measurement that is suitable for practical application by social sector organizations look like? The purpose of this article is to introduce the theoretical framework and to present what some of the measures and instruments might look like, at least in part, based on applications in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents research findings on the role of universities in forming partnerships for local economic regeneration as seen through the eyes of potential partners The move by universities into the local arena is viewed against a backcloth of an expanding higher education system, the need to establish a 'niche market' and an ever present financial imperative. The views of other agencies and organisations reveal the existence of a deep cultural divide between them and universities which has consequences for the roles universities see themselves as playing, for the management of institutions and for their mod of operation in regeneration networks. The paper identifies how universities should respond if they are to meet partners' concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divergent economic performance in many countries has led to renewed interest in place-based policies, such as the UK's local industrial strategies at the level of Combined Authorities or Local Economic Partnerships. However, an analysis of employment data using methods from the economic complexity literature demonstrates great heterogeneity in industrial strengths and future growth opportunities within those jurisdictions, raising challenges in designing common policies suited to all sub-geographies. Moreover, the 'related' industries into which low-complexity, low-wage local authorities could potentially diversify are also low-wage. Incremental policies building on existing local capacities are therefore likely to amplify divergence between prospering and left-behind areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global financial crisis which emanated from the USA has led to the development of indices for economic policy uncertainty for some developed and developing nations. Also, the current Brexit debate in the UK is a major economic influencer. 'News of news' or 'news of no News' in the daily newspapers in the USA and UK causes global economic uncertainty which has an aftermath reaction on the global economy. This study considers economic uncertainties in G7 countries using economic policy uncertainty indices developed majorly from newspapers information. The long-range dependence technique in time series was first carried out, and the results reveal an evidence of time series persistence for each country's index. This provided justification for the adoption of cointegration in a fractional integration set-up using the fractional cointegrating vector autoregressive model recently proposed. The long-run equilibrium results obtained showed that the USA and UK are dominant drivers of economic uncertainty among the G7 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the plans of the British government to invest 600 million pounds to science projects in recognition of the country's need to develop a more high-tech economy to promote sustainable growth.

Marine management developments are occurring across the United Kingdom with the major aim to ensure economic growth and security of marine resources via the provision of legislative guidelines for sustainable management of activities within the marine environment. Many of these directives also provide guidance for maintaining ecologically valuable and/or endangered species and habitats that exist alongside, and may also support, marine activities/use. Marine governance is largely guided by several key directives laid out and implemented by governing authorities of Europe, the United Kingdom and those countries comprising the United Kingdom, and in line with several international conventions. The directives set out by each authority or convention may act discretely but more often tend to overlap, which can lead to confusion about the relevant marine conservation requirements and objectives that must be fulfilled for a given region, site or feature. Additionally, management objectives driven by the same legislation may oppose one another, adding further complexity to the matter. This article aims to provide an overview of governance that holds relevance to managing marine habitats and species, especially those deemed sensitive, ecologically valuable and/or endangered. A general overview and summary schematic tool of the marine governance, legislation and designations within each level of authority for the United Kingdom are provided. Additional consideration of the implications for legislation upon the United Kingdom leaving the EU is briefly discussed and a comparative case study of two marine habitats of high conservation value is provided to demonstrate how different sites/features may have considerably different management requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of credit to entrepreneurs with good investment opportunities is an important facilitator of economic growth. Under normal economic conditions, most entrepreneurs who requested loans receive them. In a global financial crisis, popular opinion is that banks are severely restricting lending to smaller businesses. This assumes that low levels of investment are caused by supply-side restrictions in the credit market. Little is said about potential changes in the demand for credit and how it is influenced by entrepreneurs' perceptions about supply-side restrictions. One particularly interesting, and under-researched, group of small businesses is that who have potentially good investment opportunities, but are discouraged from applying for external funding as they fear rejection. In this study, we question whether these entrepreneurs were correct in their assumptions. We find that levels of discouragement are quite low in general at 2.7 % of the total smaller business population. Further analysis implies that 55.6 % of discouraged borrowers would have got loans had they applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued the UK has experienced significant underinvestment in critical infrastructure over the last two decades. This in turn has resulted in infrastructure that is less capable of assisting the UK economy to grow. This article seeks to undertake an in-depth analysis of the inter-linkages and economic contributions from infrastructure within the UK. It explores the relationship between nine infrastructure sectors and how these sectors contribute to the rest of the UK economy using key-linkage analysis. Each infrastructure sector is shown to be unique in the way it interacts with other economic sectors and in the form of contribution it makes to the economy overall. Infrastructure is found to be a necessary and important part of economic development. The analysis finds that over the last 23 years there has been a decline in the relative economic contribution from infrastructure to UK GVA. Only two infrastructure sectors increased their relative contribution to GVA since 1992. These were the water transport sector and sewerage and sanitary services sector. Railway transport and gas distribution have had the largest relative decline in contribution towards UK GVA with relative contributions decreasing by over 50 % since 1992. The three most important infrastructure sectors contributing to UK GDP are land transport, electricity production and distribution and telecommunications respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-growth firms are seen as vital for economic growth. It is important for policy and theory to consider the barriers faced by firms achieving high growth and those with the potential to do so. This article uses data for 4,858 UK SMEs to investigate the obstacles perceived by two sets of firms: (1) firms in periods of high growth and (2) potential high-growth firms, which are observationally similar but are not achieving high growth. The results suggest high-growth firms perceive problems in six areas: recruitment, skill shortages, obtaining finance, cash flow, management skills and finding suitable premises. Potential high-growth firms feel held back by the economy, obtaining finance, cash flow and their management skills, but are less likely to perceive regulation is a problem. The results have implications for theory on high-growth firms and policies focussed at them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visit of the Brazilian Commercial Mission to the UK in 1919 helped produce a change in mentalities following the First World War. The attitudes of British officials and business representatives reveal their priorities in attempting to re-establish Britain's trading and financial position in Brazil amidst the emerging commercial rivalry of the USA. The visit influenced the thinking of the entrepreneur, Roberto Simonsen, who became Brazil's leading proponent of state-led industrialisation. The British diplomat, Ernest Hambloch, later wrote His Majesty the President, a critical account of the workings of republican Brazil's political system. The different views of these two participants illustrate the tension between development and democracy in twentieth century Brazilian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

New economic geography models typically predict centripetal economic development. One process by which this might be brought about is if large companies based in the core of the economy buy up and remove small dynamic enterprises from peripheral regions, thereby suppressing development outside the core. This hypothesis is investigated by analysing the very large UK administrative firm-level Business Structure Database. Contrary to the experience of big firms, more productive small businesses are more subject to takeover-although this effect is weaker if they are located in peripheral regions. Takeovers also increase the chances of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) closing, but the exit consequence is greater for the core region. Takeovers raise productivity after acquisition in all regions but by less for the most productive SMEs. Ignoring any productivity gains to acquiring firms, the positive impact in the core region during the years considered is slightly larger than in the periphery, principally because takeovers are more common in the core. As this impact is a contributor to regional divergence, policy should aim to improve the operation of the market for SMEs in the periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes new time series for studying the UK economy during World War I and the interwar period. The time series are per capita hours worked and average capital income, labor income, and consumption tax rates. Uninterrupted time series of these variables are provided for an annual sample that runs from 1913 to 1938. We highlight the usefulness of these time series with several empirical applications. The per capita hours worked data are used in a growth accounting exercise to measure the contributions of capital, labor, and productivity to output growth. The average tax rates are employed in a Bayesian model averaging experiment to reevaluate the Benjamin and Kochin (J Political Econ 87:441-478, ) regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of firm growth are reviewed and various models examined. The firm growth and job generation process in the UK over the period 1985-87, is examined empirically, by using the very large data files of the Dun and Bradstreet credit rating organisation. In the analysis, four computer processes were carried out; the sorting and matching of files, the cleaning of the data, the validation of the cleaned data, and the scaling up the results. The final adjusted data were grossed-up to provide an overview of the growth and job generation potential of UK firms. This is compared with past results for the periods 1971-81, and 1982-84. Small firms performed well, providing 48% of all new jobs, although consisting of only 21% of all employment in 1985. The 1000+ employee range provided only 137o of all new jobs over the period, although consisting of 37% of all employment in 1985. An overall trend of positive performance in smaller firms, and negative in larger firms was apparent. The 20-49 employee cohort performed unusually poorly in firm and job creation, against the expected pattern. The effect of takeovers, mergers and rationalisations on employment was examined. As expected, there was negligible restructuring of small firms, but over 5% of employees in the largest 1000+ cohort were involved in some form of reorganisation. In this and the two previous studies for 1971-81 and 1982-84, we found a consistent pattern of small firms as net generators of jobs, and large firms as net losers. This overall net behaviour is essential for the overall stability of the population, and can not be seen in 'good' or 'bad' terms. Bolton in 1971 found that the UK had an unduly small and weak small-firm sector. That trend to concentration is being reversed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship of gross domestic products (GDP) and the economy in measuring the economic growth in United kingdom.