Small Busingess Service Firms and the 1990s Recession in the United Kingdom

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Bryson
Keyword(s):  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Local Companies ◽  
The Uk

During the 1990s recession, the UK experienced a dramatic growth in employment in information-intensive business firms. This paper explores this growth with reference to small management consultancy and market research firms. Business service firms continued to be established and to grow during the recession because of three related attributes: professional expertise, an existing reputation and a network of client contacts. These attributes are related to the theoretical work of Granovetter (1973; 1982; 1985) who argues that "weak ties" operate to connect different groups of people together. The implications of these attributes for local economic development are considered. Success for all companies at the level of the local economy will be partially dependent on efficient and effective use of available business service expertise. The three attributes make it impossible to develop successful mechanisms to encourage the formation of business service companies in areas with underdeveloped service infrastructure. Mechanisms, however, may be developed at the local level to encourage the establishment of “weak ties” between local companies and regional and national providers of business service expertise.

The Performance of Business-Service Firms in Peripheral Regions: An International Comparison between Scotland and Nova Scotia

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1627-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
P N O'Farrell
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Research Management ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Consistent Picture ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Peripheral Regions

In this paper a comparative analysis of the competitiveness and performance of business-service companies in two peripheral regions, Nova Scotia and Scotland, is presented. Several dimensions of performance are investigated for four industries: market research, management consultancy, advertising, and graphic design. Value added per person is one third higher in Scotland compared with Nova Scotia, and Nova Scotian offices derive a much higher proportion of their turnover from government and public-sector contracts. In general, however, a very consistent picture emerges of the relative position of business services in the two regions. Possible demand-side and supply-side causes of such differences are reviewed and potential policy responses considered.

Small Firms and Local Economic Development in South London

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Phelps
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Business Service ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Large Urban Area ◽  
Physical Constraints

A growing body of literature has identified a number of potential constraints on small firm growth. Arguably, the severity of these constraints is closely related to the differing fortunes of industries and firms and the extent of localised external economies or diseconomies. This paper looks at the constraints facing manufacturing and business service firms in a large urban area. The paper draws on findings from a survey of small firms in Croydon. Data from the survey reveal some differences between small manufacturing and service firms in their experience of the urban environment. Physical constraints on expansion and labour shortages appear to be hindering small manufacturing firms in Croydon. Deficiencies in specific niches of the local business service sector may be preventing small business service firms from complementing and enhancing their internal capabilities. The problems facing small firms in Croydon and the sorts of local policy initiatives being developed are likely to be applicable to other large urban areas.

Bureaucratic Slack in China: The Anti-corruption Campaign and the Decline of Patronage Networks in Developing Local Economies

2019 ◽  
Vol 243 ◽  
pp. 611-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wang ◽  
Xia Yan
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
Local Economies ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article presents a qualitative empirical study of the impact of corruption and anti-corruption on the efficiency of China's bureaucratic system in developing a local economy. Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews and 98 days of participant observation, it first investigates the significance of extravagant position-related consumption in building personalized bureaucratic ties (patronage networks) and mobilizing resources for local economic development. It then examines the causal link between President Xi's campaign against corruption and extravagance and the rise of bureaucratic slack in local governments. The anti-extravagance campaign reduces the level of corruption in local government but it discourages local officials, who are motivated primarily by the desire to avoid risk and ensure political survival, from using banquets and gift-giving to build patronage networks, attract investment and mobilize development resources. The article concludes that corruption may contribute positively to the efficiency of a fragmented Chinese bureaucracy in fostering development at the local level, while the anti-corruption campaign compels local cadres to develop a new coping strategy – bureaucratic slack – for implementing policies and developing local economies.

National economic forecasting at local level: Applications of the Cambridge model in the West Midlands

1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mick Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Level ◽  
County Council ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The West ◽  
Metropolitan County ◽  
National Economic ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
The Uk

The pioneering local economic strategies developed by the GLC and Metropolitan County Councils prior to their abolition in March 1986 frequently drew upon comprehensive research and analysis. The West Midlands County Council was the only local authority using forecasts derived from a national economic model as an input to research for local economic development. This article discusses the West Midlands' experience in using forecasts derived from Cambridge Econometrics' model of the UK economy for sectoral analysis, strategic land-use planning and evaluation of the regional impact of national economic policies.

scholarly journals Social Polarisation at the Local Level: A Four-Town Comparative Study on the Challenges of Politicising Inequality in Britain

Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003803852097559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Insa Koch ◽  
Mark Fransham ◽  
Sarah Cant ◽  
Jill Ebrey ◽  
Luna Glucksberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Community Analysis ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Social Polarisation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Missing Middle ◽  
Insight Into

This article examines how intensifying inequality in the UK plays out at a local level, in order to bring out the varied ways polarisation takes place ‘on the ground’. It brings a community analysis buttressed by quantitative framing to the study of economic, spatial and relational polarisation in four towns in the UK. We distinguish differing dynamics of ‘elite-based’ polarisation (in Oxford and Tunbridge Wells) and ‘poverty-based’ polarisation (in Margate and Oldham). Yet there are also common features. Across the towns, marginalised communities express a sense of local belonging. But tensions between social groups also remain strong and all towns are marked by a weak or ‘squeezed middle’. We argue that the weakness of intermediary institutions, including but not limited to the ‘missing middle’, and capable of bridging gaps between various social groups, provides a major insight into both the obstacles to, and potential solutions for, re-politicising inequality today.

scholarly journals Fragmented fields: Professionalisms and work settings in Italian management consultancy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Maestripieri
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Professional Service Firm

Abstract Management consultancy has long been a contested terrain in the sociology of the professions. Although the professionalism of management consultants has always been emphasized by practitioners themselves, the lack of a strong community of peers has been an impediment to their professionalization. In this article, I argue that professionalism is not the outcome of a process of regulation and institutionalization but that it has to be conceived a discourse comprising norms, worldviews, and values that define what is appropriate for an individual to be considered a competent and recognized member of this community. Given the diversity characterizing the field, there are multiple discourses surrounding professionalism of management consultants, and these discourses are shaped by work settings. Work settings are a combination of the type of organization professional partnership or professional service firm and the employment status (employee or self-employed). Drawing on the empirical evidence from various work settings (professional service firms, professional partnership, and self-employment), I investigate four clusters of practitioners identified in 55 biographical and semi-structured interviews conducted with management consultants in Italy. Four types of professionalism emerge from the clusters. Organizing professionalism is the sole professionalism that appears in all work settings. Other discourses (corporate, commercialized, and hybrid professionalism) are context-dependent and more likely to be found in specific work settings.

Complementarity of capabilities across cultures

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 567-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Anning-Dorson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Complementarity Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Customer Involvement ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how service firms across two different cultural contexts use their customer involvement capabilities to create competitive advantage. The study further assesses the possible complementarity effect of innovation and involvement capabilities in enhancing firm competitiveness. Lastly, the study draws on the complementarity of capabilities and social institutions to examine whether different cultural contexts explain the use of involvement capability among service firms. Design/methodology/approach The study sampled service firms from an emerging economy (India) and high-income economy (The UK), which have different cultural contexts (collectivism/individualist) to assess the hypothesized relationship. Data collection processes were adapted to the contexts to optimize reliability and relevance. Multi-group structural equation modeling was used in analyzing the data. Findings The study finds that cultural contexts explain the positive relationship between customer involvement capability and firm competitiveness such that in collectivist cultures, involvement capability is more positively related to competitiveness but negative in individualistic contexts. However, in both contexts, service firms can through capability bundling increase firm competitiveness. The study found that the complementarity effects of innovation and involvement capabilities were found to be positive in both contexts. Originality/value This study departs from previous studies by arguing that customer involvement is a complementary capability that helps exploit the potential of innovation capability of service firms. This study further demonstrates that cultural context defines the effectiveness of involvement capability in achieving firm competitiveness.

An Exploratory Study of Organizational Governance in Publicly-Quoted Professional Service Firms

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E. Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Governance Structures ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Governance ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Ultimate Failure ◽  
Publicly Owned ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Interpretive Scheme

There has been a trend of large professional service firms (PSFs) to move from the partnership form of ownership to alternative ownership forms. As part of this trend large, publicly-quoted accounting companies have emerged in Australia, the US and the UK. Research on how publicly-owned PSFs, including accounting companies, are governed, whether aspects of the governance of partnership persist, why particular governance interpretive schemes and associated structures and systems are implemented and implications for performance is sparse. This study explores the interpretive scheme of governance in two Australian publicly-quoted accounting companies and finds one of the companies to have mimicked the major attributes of the partnership interpretive scheme while the other company moved to a corporate form of governance eliminating all vestiges of the partnership interpretive scheme. Governance was found to have significant implications for the performance of the companies with moving from a partnership interpretive scheme contributing to the ultimate failure of one of the companies. The cases suggest that failed experiments in the governance of publicly-owned PSFs, a relatively recently emerged ownership form in some professions, may contribute to conflicting prior findings on the implications of ownership form for the performance of PSFs. Two alternative approaches to the introduction of corporate style governance structures and systems were identified with the findings suggesting potential benefits of evolution rather than revolution. Based on the findings, a theoretical model of the interpretive scheme of governance of publicly-traded PSFs is developed including factors affecting the interpretive scheme implemented and the introduction of more corporate-like governance structures and systems, potential performance implications of PSFs moving away from a partnership interpretive scheme and the conditions and contingencies under which the relationship may hold. The paper also extends the application of agency theory to publicly-owned PSFs.

The Regional Consequences of the Japanese Second Wave: A Case Study

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Munday
Keyword(s):  
Local Economy ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second Wave

Outline This paper examines the Japanese “second wave” sector in the local economy. Following an examination of the development of the second wave Japanese-owned supplier sector in the UK, the paper assesses the role of this sector in the local economy, and questions the policy rationale of attracting this particular type of inward investment.

ORGANISING FOR INNOVATION IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS: ECONOMETRIC EVIDENCE FROM THE UK

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
JANE BOURKE ◽  
STEPHEN ROPER ◽  
JAMES H LOVE
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Econometric Evidence ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
The Uk

Undertaking innovation involves a range of different activities from ideation to the commercialisation of innovations. Each activity may have very different resources and organisational requirements, however, most prior studies treat innovation as a single un-differentiated activity. Here, using new survey data for professional service firms (PSFs) in the UK, we are able to examine separately how a range of organisational work practices influence success in ideation and commercialisation. In particular, we use principal component analysis (PCA) to identify and compare the benefits of four groups of organisational work practices relating to strategy & information sharing, recruitment & training, work flexibility & discretion and culture & leadership. Strong contrasts emerge between those work practices that are important for success in ideation and commercialisation. Work practices linked to culture & leadership are important for ideation activities, while strategy &information sharing practices are more strongly associated with commercialisation success. The results suggest clear managerial implications depending on the priority

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