From ‘Techniums’ to ‘emptiums’: the failure of a flagship innovation policy in Wales

Pugh, Rhiannon; MacKenzie, Niall; Jones‐Evans, Dylan

doi:10.1080/00343404.2018.1444272

Cited by 31 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…While spillover impacts are often estimated within contemporary projects including those funded by the European Union to assess performance, 133 the data-sets necessary to estimate such impacts of the WDA's activities do not exist and cannot be reassembled retrospectively. 134 In the absence of comprehensive spillover data, the Welsh Office focused on the market failure justification and refused to accept a loss-making portfolio, despite the difficulty of profitably operating venture capital schemes within a poorly performing, peripheral economy.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Venture Capital in a Regional Economy: The Welsh Development Agency, 1976–1994

Gooberman¹,

Boyns²

2019

Enterp. Soc.

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Between 1976 and 1994 the UK Government’s Welsh Development Agency made 2,304 loan and equity investments totaling £117.8 million. The agency aimed to address difficulties faced by firms in obtaining finance, and such intervention was justified by the market failure and spillover hypotheses. This article assesses the agency’s investment activities against both justifications. It finds that while some investments succeeded, the portfolio’s financial performance was poor, and the agency did not address widespread market failure. Evidence of spillover returns existed, but cannot be quantified accurately across the portfolio. The article argues that the agency’s two venture capital objectives, to assemble a profitable portfolio and to grow employment levels through boosting commercial activity, were incompatible within a poorly performing regional economy. Although spillovers can justify public venture capital in such economies, expectations as to financial performance should be realistic in the absence of an ecosystem that facilitates demand for capital.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Venture Capital in a Regional Economy: The Welsh Development Agency, 1976–1994

Gooberman¹,

Boyns²

2019

Enterp. Soc.

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“…the creation of Higher Education Regional Associations in the U.K. in the late-1990s) and supranational policy frameworks (The European Commission's 'Smart Specialisation' framework) have provided strong governmental mandates to mobilise universities in regional territorial and economic development (Harrison, Smith, and Kinton, 2017;Foray, 2014). Significant attention has been paid to the opportunities and challenges of effectively leveraging national-level and European structural funds through 'triple helix' partnership between government, business, and HEIs (Foray, 2018;Pugh et al, 2018b;Uyarra, Marzocchi, and Sorvik, 2018).…”

Section: <>mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anchoring (in) the region: the dynamics of university-engaged urban development in Newark, NJ, USA

Addie

2020

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography

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While academic and policy analyses have explored universities' roles in urban regeneration and regional development, issues arising from intraurban collaboration and competition in multi-university city-regions have received scant attention. In response, this paper examines how higher education institutions (HEIs) connect and splinter urban space at multiple scales through a case study of Newark, NJ, USA. Newark's attempts to reposition itself as a hub for university-enabled innovation disclose the complex ways in which the infrastructures of knowledge urbanism are implemented, negotiated, and spatialised at local and city-regional scales. The study's multidisciplinary analysis assesses the discourses, technologies, and territorial constellations through which HEIs (re)shape place and project urban peripheries into wider city-regional networks. The paper's findings reveal an emergent and decentred 'de facto' form of university regionalism crystallizing in Greater New York that illustrates the need for robust, scalar-sensitive assessments of anchor institution strategies as they are articulated within broader regionalisation processes.

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“…These housed and supported high technology companies but were built without adequate assessments of market potential. They created few jobs and the programme was ultimately cancelled in 2010 (Pugh et. al., 2018).…”

Section: Propertymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘It’s déjà vu all over again’ : looking back at the Welsh Development Agency

Gooberman

2020

Welsh Economic Review

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From ‘Techniums’ to ‘emptiums’: the failure of a flagship innovation policy in Wales

Cited by 31 publications

References 39 publications

Public Venture Capital in a Regional Economy: The Welsh Development Agency, 1976–1994

Public Venture Capital in a Regional Economy: The Welsh Development Agency, 1976–1994

Anchoring (in) the region: the dynamics of university-engaged urban development in Newark, NJ, USA

‘It’s déjà vu all over again’ : looking back at the Welsh Development Agency

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