David Pickernell

• Professor at Swansea University

This study uses a novel application of panel fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in the international management field. utilizing a unique database capturing reasons for foreign direct investment (FDI), and state-level location, we explain location decisions of high-technology South Korean (henceforth Korean) multinational enterprise...

There is currently renewed policy focus on ‘levelling-up’ economic performance across Great Britain’s regions and nations. Heterogeneous historical regional economic experiences lead to questions over the need for policy differences and trade-offs, and roles of regional, versus national level, policies in the longer term. This paper examines, using...

This study offers a novel country-level longitudinal investigation of conditions, including, income, urbanity, education, R&D, and entrepreneurial activity, driving international trade, for imports and exports. The configurational (clustering) approach places emphasis on country and year groupings, offering ‘targeted’ understanding on country level...

Previous research has emphasised the importance of examining institutional influences on FDI attractiveness. There is, however, relatively limited, conflicting, research exploring the relationship between informal institutional effects, such as level of corruption, and FDI motivation. Addressing this gap, we adopt a configurational fsQCA-based appr...

This study conceptualizes graduate entrepreneurship as a spatial phenomenon. Specifically, we explore how combinations of university-related (knowledge exchange intensity and entrepreneurship support) as well as regional conditions (economic prosperity and entrepreneurial culture) might explain the presence or absence of high graduate entrepreneurs...

Purpose While previous research has identified that environmental innovation is shaped by a variety of drivers, researchers have devoted limited attention to the role of nature-based resources in the country. Building on environmental innovation theory and the natural resource-based view of the firm, this study introduces ecological resource defici...

Using fsQCA, this study explores how venture strategy, as well as founding team knowledge diversity and demographic diversity interact to explain revenue growth of new ventures. Based on a longitudinal dataset containing 210 new ventures, we find that the effects of team diversity are complex such that different diversity conditions explain short-t...

In recent years, entrepreneurs have increasingly turned to crowdfunding, a new form of entrepreneurial finance, to fund projects. Whilst research has shown that signals originating from the entrepreneur and project can affect the outcome of crowdfunding, how different signals work together under different signalling environments remains underexplor...

Entrepreneurial ecosystems constructed by disadvantaged entrepreneurs often exist beside, within, and in opposition to 'mainstream' ecosystems focused on high growth high technology entrepreneurial ventures. Disadvantaged Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem addresses the lack of current research concerning disadvantage using an entr...

This report explores the perspectives of disadvantaged female entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the official entrepreneurial ecosystem in the UK and France from 2019 to 2020. In the UK and France, the proportion of women-led businesses is considerably lower throughout all stages of business development in comparison to male-led businesses and if th...

Despite evidence of substantial differences in business exit rates across countries, understanding of the institutional conditions contributing to those differences is still incomplete. Methodological limitations have left considerable gaps in our understanding of business exit, due to the dominance of regression models that capture institutional c...

This study contributes to research on how microfoundations, in the form of CEO characteristics, influence ambidexterity (the capability to engage simultaneously in both exploration and exploitation) in SMEs. Specifically, it aims to identify which combinations of CEO regulatory foci (promotion and prevention focus) explain ambidexterity in SMEs and...

Using a 2019 data set, 236 regions across 26 European countries are investigated, focusing on four, interlinked, conditions of potential relevance to SME innovation, specifically measures focused on levels of human capital, internal firm innovation, innovation collaborations and broader knowledge collaborations between public and private sectors. T...

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an exploratory orientation because its dimensions such as innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking are the essence of exploration that entails uncertain returns. While literature suggests firms might need to counterbalance and complement EO with another orientation for organisational success, research on thi...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of effectuation when used by small suppliers within key account management (KAM) relationships. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory longitudinal case study approach was used to examine a single small supplier operating in the snack foods sector of the UK foods industry, as it enter...

Competition and day‐to‐day firefighting prevents small businesses from undertaking the most effective types of strategic planning and networking for growth and innovation. Poor or inappropriate execution of these activities highlights the need for targeted managerial training. Potential explanations for the weak growth of many SMEs focus on the lim...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the portfolio of knowledge transfer (KT) activities in 162 UK higher education institutions. In doing so, this study creates an index and ranking, but more importantly, it identifies specific groupings or strategic profiles of universities defined by different combinations and strengths of the individ...

This study offers a novel evaluation of the conditions for Total Entrpreneurial Activity (TEA) and Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) across 59 Sub-Saharan African regions. The analysis employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2013) survey data using five condition variables, measuring regional-level ent...

This paper presents a novel longitudinal study of entrepreneurial attitudes and activity. The study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and builds on a previous cross-sectional cross-country investigation. Data for 2007–2017 from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project are used to compare 108 countries in terms of entr...

Purpose Prior research shows that universities differ in the knowledge exchange (KE) activities they pursue, but little is known about universities’ strategies regarding their portfolio of KE activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the KE strategy of UK universities in specific relation to their portfolio of KE activities with small- an...

This study evaluates the future design of entrepreneurship education (EE) based on the retrospective experiences of students regarding the educational experience encountered at two UK universities. The contribution here is to identify optimum course design and programme impact which informs the discipline. This study utilises the QAA’s (2018) defin...

Local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) were introduced by the UK government in 2010 to promote local economic development. There is, however, a minimal pre-LEP baseline analysis concerning aspirations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in LEP geographies. Employing Federation of Small Businesses 2010 data gathered before LEP policy activiti...

Measuring impact from university research is increasingly seen as important, not least because of its use in resource allocation processes by governments. These measurement approaches, however, often take ‘wide and shallow’ economic effect-based views that are ex-post, linear and uni-directional. Consequently, research collaborations between univer...

Building on a longitudinal dataset of 245 small firms covering the period of the Global Financial Crisis, this study uses, in combination with fuzzy clustering, the N-State Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (NCaRBS) technique. This technique, able to deal with ambiguous outcome variables, small datasets, incomplete data and relationships th...

This study considers roles played by dimensions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and geography on United States (US) state level growth, unemployment, and income employing Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analyses (fsQCA). One important developmental feature of the analyses is the use of a novel fuzzy membership score creation process, undertaken...

This study, utilizes an innovative methodological approach, fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), investigating the drivers of heterogeneous geographies characterizing English Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs). The fsQCA technique offers a novel configurational alternative to regression-based approaches investigating the effects of c...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are tasked with driving economic recovery globally, in terms of contribution to economic growth. Understanding the determinants of SME innovation is essential in clarifying this phenomena. This study investigates the link between SME strategies and intention to undertake future innovation, using Federation o...

Abstract Social Enterprises have grown in number and scope in response to reductions in state-provided welfare and increasing ambition to improve social conditions. Whilst a range of issues have been identified in the literature as affecting the ability of Social Enterprises to successfully conduct their activities, there is currently a dearth of r...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the entrepreneurial activities of universities in the UK can be statistically grouped together. Design/methodology/approach This paper is performing a principal component analysis (PCA) of the 2009/2010 UK Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCIS) data for the thir...

This paper analyses how and why different forms of social capital are associated with different forms of innovation within the Communities First programme in Wales. Quantitative analysis shows that the Communities First programme partnerships analysed in this research are supportive of building both bonding and bridging social capital. Different ty...

This study investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial climate (EC) and self-perceptions about entrepreneurship (SPaE). The variables and data were derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) dataset and framework. Specifically, the study examined variables closely related to the GEM concepts of entrepreneurial capacity and pre...

Purpose This study evaluates career impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) considering evidence drawn from a quantitative study of alumni within two UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from a retrospective perspective. The findings informs the value of the EE experience and its impact on both self-employability and wider employability caree...

Third Stream Activity (TSA) is increasingly important to UK universities and the wider economy, through innovation and entrepreneurship. Using data from the 2009/2010 UK Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey, this study investigates UK universities’ TSA. Through considering the data in original and logged forms, two interpretat...

Despite rapid growth in female entrepreneurship globally, the gender gap in self-employment remains and women’s full contribution to the economy via self-employment continues to be unrealized. Female self-employment is an important agenda given current political interest and policy focus on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) revitalizing the Welsh...

This study undertakes a cross-country comparison of the relationship between entrepreneurship attitudes and high and low entrepreneurial activity. The analysis employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The data set comes from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2011 survey, four country-level entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions vari...

Abstract: This paper seeks to investigate issues of spatial proximity of suppliers, local income retention and economic development opportunities of public sector procurement. Specifically the paper uses case evidence from NHS Wales, and seeks to build on previous research, which had focused on one health board in Wales. The NHS Wales case in in...

This study offers insights into determinants of SME exporting according to the characteristics of exporting firms and their resources, thus contributing to a limited literature. The dataset comprised 4,838 respondents from a survey of the UK Federation of Small Businesses. The dependent variable used was two-category ('do not export' and 'export'),...

In German automotive industry suppliers, internal electronic information (IEI) satisfies the requirements of being a competitiveness-enhancing resource.

This study demonstrates a novel form of business analytics, respecting the quality of the data available (allowing incompleteness in the data set), as well as engaging with the uncertainty in the considered outcome variable (inclusive of Don’t Know (DK) responses). The analysis employs the NCaRBS technique, based on the Dempster-Shafer theory of ev...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate student motivation for undertaking an entrepreneurship education programme and their ultimate employment aspirations through a novel data mining technique. The study considered what relationship certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their inte...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate student motivation for undertaking an entrepreneurship education programme and their ultimate employment aspirations through a novel data mining technique. The study considered what relationship certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their inte...

This study explores the value and impact that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) derive from winning business awards. Value and impact are explored in terms of enhanced profitability and performance, network development, enterprise profile and brand identity. This study employs a case study methodology with 10 SMEs drawn from a major busines...

This article analyses longitudinal case-based research exploring the attitudes and strategic responses of micro-enterprise owners in adopting information and communication technology (ICT). In so doing, it contributes to the limited literature on micro-enterprise ICT adoption, with a particular focus on sole proprietors. It provides a basis for wid...

This study investigates the impact of available training alternatives (TAs) on employee retention in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A noticeable problem with this research issue is that individual SMEs may utilize different combination of TAs. The considered survey questionnaire allowed respondent SME owners/managers the option to gauge the l...

Purpose – This study aims to examine e-commerce within UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, it seeks to explore associations between e-commerce and internal and external antecedents including trading behaviour, owner/manager characteristics, innovation, public sector involvement, business advice and finance sources. Des...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether new and young firms are different from older firms. This analysis is undertaken to explore general characteristics, use of external resources and growth orientation. Design/methodology/approach – Data from the 2008 UK Federation of Small Businesses survey provided 8,000 responses. Quanti...

The business environment is characterised by increasing competitiveness, globalised trading markets and technological enhancements (Aragon-Sanchez et al., 2003; Lin and Jacobs, 2008). Organisational working practices have become increasingly sophisticated and as a consequence training provision and requirements have evolved. Birdthistle (2006) and...

With this study we evaluate the impact of different training methods (TMs) on small and medium-enterprises’ (SMEs’) business performances, utilising a dataset of 3521. We consider the relationship between the satisfaction SMEs have towards their employees’ training needs being met by a diverse range of TMs and the levels of impact the training has...

Gambling activities and the revenues derived have been seen as a way to increase economic development in deprived areas. There are also, however, concerns about the effects of gambling in general and electronic gaming machines (EGMs) in particular, on the resources available to the localities in which they are situated. This paper focuses on the fa...

Since the late twentieth century, there has been a shift away from delivery of infrastructure, including road networks, exclusively by the state. Subsequently, a range of alternative delivery models including governance networks have emerged. However, little is known about how connections between these networks and their stakeholders are created, m...

This paper considers the work of the European Cluster Observatory (ECO) in light of current debates around the notion of clusters. Examining the definitions employed by the ECO, questions are posed about how effective policy can be when using highly restrictive means of analysis. Further, the work contends that, far from this being purely an analyt...

This conceptual paper investigates Small Construction Enterprises (SCEs) and their activities involving technological development, innovation, technology and key success factors. The paper considers the reasons for, and the barriers to, innovation. The literature indicates that utilisation of innovations in new products, services and processes is i...

Festivals and special events are increasingly encouraged by urban policy makers as driving local (and regional) economic and cultural regeneration, with the consequent justification of public investment therein. This has led to an emerging need for deeper understanding of their contribution, and for evaluation beyond the purely economic. In order t...

Abstract The automotive and electronics industries within the UK have seen dramatic changes over the past two decades, reflected by culture changes for the organisations within them. This paper examines,the issues surrounding two,case study firms in the South Wales electronics and automotive components cluster, who are attempting to change their co...

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine the initiation of the University of the Heads of the Valley Initiative (UHOVI) project and evaluate the development of its focus, materials and structure. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology employs interviews with a purposive sample of local employer stakeholders. The rationale for this...

Government procurement policy in the UK is an uneasy mixture of different policy legacies, where the dominant objectives of cost-efficiency and value for money compete with alternatives which emphasise public procurement as central to innovation policy and/or a critical demand-side instrument in local and regional economic development. Quantitative...

Purpose – The Polish economy is continuing its expansion through the adoption of free market economics in the post-communist era. To encourage this growth in a future where difficult global economic conditions are likely to persist, it is essential that entrepreneurial activity is encouraged within the next generation of graduates. This study aims...

The development of Ecommerce within Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Wales is restricted by a number of barriers. Various projects initiated by government and academic bodies exist to assist SMEs overcome these barriers. However, whether these projects represent the needs of SMEs is debatable. The opportunity for SMEs to exploit information c...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and in what areas, graduate entrepreneurs are significantly different from non-graduate entrepreneurs, both generally and in terms of external resources (advice, finance and public procurement contracts). Design/methodology/approach – The available literature was evaluated to identify...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and in what areas, graduate entrepreneurs are significantly different from non‐graduate entrepreneurs, both generally and in terms of external resources (advice, finance and public procurement contracts). Design/methodology/approach The available literature was evaluated to identify issu...

Commercial aerospace is a key sector in the Welsh economy, engaged in complex overlapping activities from aircraft manufacture (AM), through maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), to research, development and training (RDT). Defining and operationalizing a framework for analysis using both qualitative and quantitative data, this paper examines the...

This paper presents research examining the effects of network interaction and small medium sized enterprise (SME) performance, with particular regard to the accessing of knowledge for innovation. Economic development policy is increasingly focused on SMEs, creating a clear research issue in terms of the roles and interactions of support bodies and...

Universities play multiple knowledge-related roles in economies, creating (or co-creating), absorbing, disseminating and utilizing knowledge. These roles, however, are not without difficulty, for reasons related to universities themselves and the small firms that need to use such knowledge. This paper uses the UK Federation of Small Businesses 2008...

It is increasingly understood that learning and thus innovation often occurs via highly interactive, iterative, network-based processes. Simultaneously, economic development policy is increasingly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a means of generating growth, creating a clear research issue in terms of the roles and interacti...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of enterprise education on entrepreneurial attitude within European higher education institutions (HEIs) in France, Germany and Poland. The research seeks to consider whether differences between cultural and industrial heritage can influence entrepreneurial attitude and mediate the effectiveness of en...

This study profiles an empirical study of E-Commerce trading patterns of SMEs in Wales. Academic debate continues to espouse the importance of the SME community in engendering economic prosperity and enhanced economic development although the sector also remains categorised by high failure rates. The strategic adoption of information technology off...

Maximisation of Knowledge-Based Development (KBD) benefits requires effective dissemination and utilisation mechanisms to accompany the initial knowledge creation process. This work highlights the potential for interactions between Supply Chains (SCs) and Small and Medium sized Enterprise Clusters (SMECs), (including via ‘junction’ firms which are...

The not-for-profit, fully debt-funded and large scale outsourcing of Glas Cymru (GC) is unique in the England and Wales context, representing a fascinating case in water industry structure and regulation. This paper examines the suitability, desirability and wider feasibility of the GC model, compared with other water industries within the EU in ge...

Universities are increasingly encouraged to take a leading role in economic development, particularly through innovation. Simultaneously, economic development policy itself is increasingly focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), creating overlapping interactions in the roles of government policy, universities and SMEs and the processe...

This research project set out to explore Unitary Authority (UA) involvement in festivals and special events across Wales. It considers the level and nature of UA involvement and investigates activity by event purpose; reasons for, and characteristics of, UA engagement; and, crucially, the extent and nature of event evaluation. The study’s aim was t...

A case study approach is applied to review Local Government Authorities (LGA) regional engagement in the Australian context. We address the question 'What are the key LGA enablers/impediments to regional engagement?' by applying Leydesdorff's (2000) proposition that triple helix type network systems exhibit patterns of complex behaviour if the inte...

There is a clear research issue for Wales regarding the roles and interactions of government policy, HEIs, SMEs and the creation and dissemination of innovation. A study of the views of key policy makers concerning innovation and entrepreneurship in Wales is undertaken, especially with regard to the development of innovation within SMEs and the pol...

Interest in Barnett formula reform is on the rise again, particularly because of changes in the parties in power in the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales, and the tighter public spending heralded by the recent Comprehensive Spending Review. This article looks at whether, and to what extent, the introduction of an alternative fiscal allocat...

Current research suggests that the process of knowledge creation is both networked and iterative. Synthesising the literature highlights a range of factors for analysis in knowledge-based industries. These factors are then used to examine the biotechnology sector in Queensland Australia, utilising available secondary literature, interviews with a r...

We explore if the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship, applied to FDI, provides at least a partial explanation for the greater emergence of recent knowledge-based entrepreneurship in Ireland compared with Wales. In order to examine how FDI and entrepreneurship policy in these two regions might have influenced the levels of knowledge-base...

Drawing on extensive academic research Concerning Clusters and networks, this paper seeks to create a framework capable of reviewing and monitoring different aspects of Clusters and networks on an ongoing basis. The nine-clement framework allows evaluation of the structures and processes for the eight basic cluster types identified from the literat...

What happens to a regulatory regime when the company that it has been designed to regulate radically changes form? We examine the case of Glas Cymru (GC), which was set up in 2001 and is unique within the England and Wales water industry in being entirely debt financed and operated on a not-for-profit basis. The article argues that the Office for W...

Regression modeling is used to predict gambling patterns in Australia on the basis of the unit record files underlying the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Household Expenditure Survey of 6,892 households. The four largest categories of gambling expenditure are examined, namely: lottery tickets, lotto-type games and instant lottery (scratch cards),...

Objectives This paper explores social capital and network building in rural areas, its importance in enterprise creation and development, and the role which festivals and events can thus play in this process. Prior Work Previous work has highlighted that social capital and networking can be important factors in entrepreneurship (both general and so...

The purpose of this study is to examine the types and extent of social enterprise in rural regional Wales, and the suitability of government policy towards rural social entrepreneurs. The rural unitary authority area of Ceredigion is surveyed to examine the number and type of social entrepreneurs and their experiences in dealing with government pol...

The paper seeks to improve the evidence base surrounding regional ports and their economic impact. The paper reveals that industries dependent on the port infrastructure are actually key regional players, often operating in relatively fast growth sectors, and contributing to the economic and social needs of the local economy. The focus in the case...