History Matters: Path dependence and innovation in British city ...

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Figure 27: The explosion of patenting activity in the Eastern region 90 80 70 60 Applications > 5 per million population 50 40 30 20 10 0 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Years Electronic communication technique Measuring (counting Go6M); testing Medical or veterinary science; hygiene Computing; calculating, counting Organic chemistry Basic electric elements Conveying; packing; storing; handling thin or filamentary material Physical or chemical processes or apparatus in general Optics Earth or rock drilling; mining Printing; lining machines; type writers; stamps Vehicles in general Engineering elements or units; general measures for producing and maintaining effective functioning of machines or installations; thermal insulations in general Biochemistry; beer; spirit; wine; vinegar; microbiology; enzymology; mutation or genetic engineering Furniture; domestic articles or appliances; coffee mills; spice mills; suction cleaners in general Sports; games; amusements Indeed, much of Swansea’s employment growth has been in the public sector (currently around 38 per cent of employment, compared to the UK average of 27 per cent, with the City and County of Swansea, the DVLA, the health service and university the key employers), and there is an under-representation of private sector firms in the city. Similarly, a longstanding grant-dependent culture through UK regional policy assistance and EU funding (Objective 1 up to 2006 and Convergence Funding until 2013) is viewed by many to be a barrier to private sector exploitation of new ideas. At the same time, some regard the nature of organisational and management expertise amongst Swansea firms as not facilitating knowledge exploitation. Firms in Swansea are described as “not very sophisticated”: “They’ve got great technical ideas, but no idea if there’s a market for it. They don’t have management skills. Unsophisticated, I’d say.” [Interview SW001] 50
Figure 28: The lack of patenting pathways in South Wales 2.0 1.5 Applications > 1 per million population 1.0 0.5 0 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 Years Medical or veterinary science; hygiene Agriculture; forestry; animal husbandry, hunting, trapping, fishing Physical or chemical processes or apparatus in general Conveying; packing; storing; handling thin or filamentary material Vehicles in general Engineering elements or units; general measures for producing and maintaining effective functioning of machines or installations; thermal insulations in general Basic electric elements Organic chemistry For companies within Technium, a recent programme (‘Learning Journey’) took chief executives from ten Technium companies to Silicon Valley to learn from senior managers within hi-tech companies such as Boeing, Oracle and Intel, how their businesses were run. The programme has been very successful in opening up possibilities for new ways of doing business and thus exploiting knowledge for these firms, but its impact outside participating companies has necessarily been limited. In Cambridge the culture is quite different. The creation and exploitation of knowledge seems to be a key driving force across almost all the firms in the city’s high-tech cluster. “The Cambridge cluster contains numerous cutting-edge firms, in the sense that they constantly seek to develop new technologies and new products. That’s part of the atmosphere here. Most firms here do not serve the local market, nor just the national one, but are global in outlook, and know that unless they exploit ideas that give them an edge in that global market place, their competitors will.” [Interview CAMB002] Yet Cambridge high-tech firms don’t always maximise their potential to exploit and use knowledge to grow their businesses into major global players. A common complaint amongst local commentators is that few Cambridge firms grow into large companies, remaining instead in the small and medium sized categories. This is commonly attributed to a lack of managerial skills or the unwillingness of scientist-owners (who are good at creating and applying new knowledge, but not necessarily at management) to pass control over to high-calibre managers (who would be good at exploiting market opportunities and growing businesses): 51
Page 1: Research report: July 2008 History
Page 4 and 5: Executive summary History matters:
Page 6 and 7: 5. Strong local social networks. By
Page 8 and 9: Acknowledgements This report was wr
Page 10 and 11: Part 1: Introduction 1.1 History ma
Page 12 and 13: Figure 2: Three perspectives on eco
Page 14 and 15: Figure 4: Two alternative path depe
Page 16 and 17: In the long-run, city-regional econ
Page 18 and 19: into new practical and commercial f
Page 20 and 21: Part 2: Path dependence and innovat
Page 22 and 23: Map 2: Introduction of novel produc
Page 24 and 25: Figure 8: Selected cities best fit
Page 26 and 27: Figure 10: Change in knowledge-inte
Page 28 and 29: Figure 12: Knowledge partners locat
Page 30 and 31: Figure 14: Change in proportions of
Page 32 and 33: Figure 15: New firm formation in se
Page 34 and 35: Figure 17: New firm formation by in
Page 36 and 37: Part 3: Cambridge and Swansea: cont
Page 38 and 39: Around the same time, the public se
Page 40 and 41: with around 10-12 firms on each of
Page 42 and 43: Figure 19: The growth of high-tech
Page 44 and 45: Figure 22: Cambridge annual employm
Page 46 and 47: Figure 24: Cambridge and Swansea em
Page 48 and 49: Figure 25: Cambridge and Swansea kn
Page 52 and 53: Figure 29: Cambridge and Swansea na
Page 54 and 55: average in all forms of innovation
Page 56 and 57: Figure 32: Cambridge and Swansea na
Page 58 and 59: new technologies, products or proce
Page 60 and 61: innovation. The Cambridge cluster w
Page 62 and 63: Part 4: Why do cities differ in inn
Page 64 and 65: of the subsequent construction of s
Page 66 and 67: These two studies illustrate how qu
Page 68 and 69: 68 or technology transfer programme
Page 70 and 71: Map 4: Warrington Master Plan 1972
Page 72 and 73: Map 6: Analysis of innovation outco
Page 74 and 75: Map 8: Analysis of innovation outco
Page 76 and 77: Map 10: Analysis of innovation outc
Page 78 and 79: Map 12: Analysis of innovation outc
Page 80 and 81: Appendix 2: Secondary data indicato
Page 82 and 83: Indicators of path dependent develo
Page 84 and 85: Table 11: GVA per capita Indicator
Page 86 and 87: Table 17: Patent applications per c
Page 88 and 89: Table 22: Geography of knowledge ne
Page 90 and 91: Table 28: Occupational breakdown of
Page 92 and 93: Cohen, W. and Levinthal, D. A. (199
Page 94: Roberts, M. (2004) The Growth Perfo

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