Abstract:The internet and e-connectivity more generally are increasingly held to be an important element of business success. Evidence however suggests that the productive impacts of such technologies are contingent on factors that include firm size and sector, and human capital. It follows that if companies with these characteristics are unevenly distributed across space, the increasing importance of broadband in economic activity might impact unevenly on economic outcomes across space. We examine the Cardiff City-Reg… Show more
“…It will be smarter, but not as smart as cities. (Transport consultant)Uneven tele-communications infrastructure leads to inequalities in digital skills and uptake among local populations, which is further compounded by the inability of poorer connected areas to attract digitally skilled people or firms (Jones and Henderson, 2019). The Covid-19 lockdown has seen a rapid uptake of telecommunications technologies across all sectors of society but it has also highlighted the challenges for those, typically older, groups of people without to skills or confidence to use mobile or web-based communications.…”
Section: Mobility Innovations and Their Potential For Addressing Ruramentioning
Current transport strategy in the UK is strongly urban-focused, with assumptions that technological advances in mobility will simply trickle down into rural areas. This article challenges such a view and instead draws on rural development thinking aligned to a “Smart Countryside” which emphasises the need for place-based approaches. Survey and interview methods are employed to develop a framework of rural needs associated with older people, younger people and businesses. This framework is employed to assess a range of mobility innovations that could most effectively address these needs in different rural contexts. In presenting visions of future rural mobility, the article also identifies key infrastructure as well as institutional and financial changes that are required to facilitate the roll-out of new technologies across rural areas.
“…It will be smarter, but not as smart as cities. (Transport consultant)Uneven tele-communications infrastructure leads to inequalities in digital skills and uptake among local populations, which is further compounded by the inability of poorer connected areas to attract digitally skilled people or firms (Jones and Henderson, 2019). The Covid-19 lockdown has seen a rapid uptake of telecommunications technologies across all sectors of society but it has also highlighted the challenges for those, typically older, groups of people without to skills or confidence to use mobile or web-based communications.…”
Section: Mobility Innovations and Their Potential For Addressing Ruramentioning
Current transport strategy in the UK is strongly urban-focused, with assumptions that technological advances in mobility will simply trickle down into rural areas. This article challenges such a view and instead draws on rural development thinking aligned to a “Smart Countryside” which emphasises the need for place-based approaches. Survey and interview methods are employed to develop a framework of rural needs associated with older people, younger people and businesses. This framework is employed to assess a range of mobility innovations that could most effectively address these needs in different rural contexts. In presenting visions of future rural mobility, the article also identifies key infrastructure as well as institutional and financial changes that are required to facilitate the roll-out of new technologies across rural areas.
“…There is also evidence of the impact of SME adoption in terms of increased turnover, employment and innovation benefits ( Henderson et al, 2018 ). The adoption, however, has not been universal, with research finding that firms and sectors in different parts of Wales have benefitted unevenly from these developments ( Jones & Henderson, 2019 ). Fig.…”
Increasing attention has been paid to the potential for demand-side policies to stimulate use of broadband networks. Such policies form part of the increasing digitalisation of the economy and wider society. This is an area where governments are also facing challenges in their efforts to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their policies. The paper sheds light on the impact that the transition towards digital has had on demand-side policies supporting the adoption of broadband and digital technologies by SMEs, and draws out the implications for policy, using a case study of Wales in the UK over a ten-year period. It shows that digitalisation has seen policy mechanisms and messages evolving as policy makers have created a more integrated and multi-channel approach to the delivery of advisory support to SMEs, but that the emergence of multiple types of actors (large digital platform businesses) and ongoing digitalisation are adding complexity to policies and their interaction with other forms of public and private business support.
“…The variables of physical geography were mainly dependent on the natural background environmental conditions, related to geographical location and formed naturally; the economic variables were related to economic income and industrial development; the societal variables were related to social and historical development, influenced by human beings and driven by human development needs. This categorization and choice of variables reflect common practice among researchers working on related studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]28,36].…”
Section: Datamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Natural resources [20], economic [21], infrastructure, and population [22] are commonly considered to be the driving forces in research on the regional urban spatial imbalance. Jones and Henderson [23] demonstrated that the distribution of emerging industries would further expand the gap of urban spatial expansion size between the relatively prosperous coastal zone and the industrial hinterland in the Cardiff City-Region in South Wales. Farmer [24] studied Chicago, USA, and demonstrated that the level of regional infrastructure service, especially public transportation facilities, led to the uneven development of urban spatial development intensity.…”
Unbalanced regional development is widespread, and the imbalance of regional development in developing countries with rapid urbanization is increasingly apparent. This threatens the sustainable development of the region. Promoting the coordinated development of the region has become a hot spot of scientific research and a major practical need. Taking 99 counties of Jiangsu Province China, a typical coastal plain region, as the basic research unit, this paper explores the unbalanced development characteristics of the regional urban spatial form using three indicators: urban spatial expansion size, development intensity, and distribution aggregation degree. Then, their driving mechanisms were evaluated using spatial autocorrelation analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression, and geographically weighted regression. Our results found that the areas with larger urban spatial expansion size and development intensity were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu, where there was a positive spatial correlation between them. We found no agglomeration phenomenon in urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. From the perspective of driving factors: economics was the main driving factor of urban spatial expansion size; urbanization level and urbanization quality were the main driving factors of urban spatial development intensity. Natural landform and urbanization level are the main driving factors of urban spatial distribution aggregation degree. Finally, we discussed the optimization strategy of regional coordinated development. The quality of urbanization development and regional integration should be promoted in Southern Jiangsu. The level of urbanization development should be improved relying on rapid transportation to develop along the axis in central Jiangsu. The economic size should be increased, focusing on the expansion of the urban agglomeration in northern Jiangsu. This study will enrich the perspective of research on the characteristics and mechanisms of regional urban spatial imbalance, and helps to optimize and regulate the imbalance of regional urban development from multiple perspectives.
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