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Little has been written from the practitioner’s perspective about the discourses of localism permeating local planning practice. Even less has been written about the tangible local economic outputs of such planning initiatives legislated through the Localism Act (House of Commons, 2011). As such, this paper fills a gap by reviewing the practicalities of the neighbourhood development plan (NDP) process; a localism tool heralded as a mechanism to allow local communities to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built. Reflecting on the 858 NDPs currently underway across England and Wales, the real drivers, practicalities and implications of this new policy layer are critically analysed from the practitioner’s perspective. The paper concludes that behind the rhetoric of the neighbourhood planning discourse is a covert political objective of enabling local economic development by facilitating private sector-led growth (through ensuring fewer local objections to development proposals and more planning approvals). However, quite the opposite, the paper reveals a dangerously misplaced emphasis on empowering localities through NDPs. This is because in reality experimental NDPs have a limited and uneven scope and at times may be inflammatory, increasing anti-development sentiments. Instead, it is proposed that an adjusted policy focus is adopted which facilitates genuine community engagement with the local development planning process.

This study examines the strategies that firms deploy in developing and scaling up organizational ambidexterity under conditions of environmental uncertainty. Using five emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) in the Nigerian financial sector as case studies the study provides a framework of four main ambidextrous strategies deployed by these firms. Based on the dynamic capabilities' lens, the study found that EMNEs pursue a combination of contextual and structural ambidextrous strategies, including new business models, investment in technology for strategic innovation, developing strategic alliances, and internationalization. These strategies serve as levers of dynamic capabilities for fostering exploration of new business opportunities, while strengthening, enriching, and exploiting their existing capabilities. These findings contribute to enriching the existing literature on ambidexterity by contributing to the ongoing debate about how ambidexterity manifest in EMNEs during periods of environmental uncertainty, particularly from an emerging country context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and influence of organisational culture and respective values and norms on implementation of the Localism Act by English local authorities. Specific implications for dealing with strategic change are identified, explained and critically evaluated.Data were collected using exploratory in-depth interviews with officers in English local authorities. The focus was on operational complexity, identification of organisational culture and its impact on implementation of strategic change. Professionals indicated that local authorities are currently hit by cost-cutting measures, but real strategic change is inhibited by both powerful organisational culture and lack of government-supplied resources. Findings also showed that local authorities face a variety of contemporary challenges in dealing with change due to contextual idiosyncrasies. The paper builds on and extends existing literature that has applied organisational theories to the public sector. The paper highlights substantive barriers to change in English local authorities that have potential negative implications for community empowerment and service provision, and effectively hinder strategy implementation. The empirical paper is novel in reviewing, developing and applying models of organisational culture and strategic change to local government by looking specifically at the challenges of strategy implementation at operational levels using the example of localism. Its specific theoretical contribution is data generation that shows a tangible impact of organisational culture on policy implementation in local authorities.

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