Piers Thompson

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• PhD Economics - University of Wales Swansea
• Professor of Local and Regional Economic Development at Nottingham Trent University

Both entrepreneurship and foreign direct investment (FDI) are frequently identified as being sources of local and regional economic growth. However, the relationship between the two is not always clear, with a negative competition effect and a positive demand effect potentially present. China provides an interesting case to study with its large sta...

The paper draws on network theory to employ concepts of homophily and heterophily to investigate whether the presence of familiar, unfamiliar or a mix of actors in an entrepreneurial ecosystem is related to start-up rates. The empirical focus of this study is on 81 UK university entrepreneurial ecosystems and their outputs in terms of academic spin...

There is no overall agreement on the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic enterprise, this may reflect different effects from various types of FDI. A panel data regression approach is adopted to examine the impact of knowledge intensive FDI on both new firm formation and the deaths of enterprises. Jobs created by FDI ar...

This paper moves beyond typical mean effect analysis to examine who truly benefits from micro-credit. Utilising household-level panel data from 2010 to 2019 for a sample of Sub-Saharan African countries, via a quantile panel framework, we show that micro-credit has positive outcomes for households below specific welfare levels in low and lower-midd...

This paper explores how regions can catalyse behavioural change and nurture cultures of possibility. ‘Possibility’ refers to emergent patterns of human behaviour resulting in alternative and improved outcomes for citizens and their regions. Drawing on concepts from behavioural economics, complexity economics and behavioural economic geography, the...

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...

Purpose Previous studies have shown how the nature of businesses and the strategies pursued by their owners are affected by the personality traits of their owners. These personality traits can be formed in the early stages of life due to experiences and the surrounding context, where religion is a particularly important aspect of this context. This...

The concept of an ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’ has become a major means for both theorizing and making policy decisions concerning entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development. The notion of an entrepreneurial ecosystem captures the way in which entrepreneurship is increasingly performed and undertaken via the innate interdependencies exis...

The concept of 'entrepreneurial ecosystems' has emerged as a means for theorizing and making policy-decisions concerning entrepreneurship and economic development within and across cities and regions. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Cities and Regions assembles original contributions from scholars across the world to provide an in-depth analysis of a...

This paper addresses the process of entrepreneurial ecosystem emergence in regions and the mechanisms through which new industrial paths are created. It focuses on the context of a relatively weak economic region and develops a mode of analysis that considers the role of human agency within the emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This analysis...

In the opening decades of the twenty-first century certain cities around the world emerged as hubs of entrepreneur-ial innovation. This paper explores this urban economic change phenomenon through in-depth and comparative qualitative analysis. It focuses on the recent contemporary history of New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Tokyo and Shanghai...

The report covers UK Competitiveness Index for 2023. This is a benchmarking study covering the competitiveness of localities (local authority districts) in Great Britain. Measures are also included for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and City Regions.

This paper draws on behavioural economic geography to identify the factors affecting uneven development. It uses the lens of economic competitiveness and focuses on the association between differences in human behavioural traits and competitiveness in the context of localities across the UK. It focuses on the policy requirement for ‘levelling up’ b...

Although considerable efforts have been made in many countries to raise the financial literacy of those from disadvantaged backgrounds, it is unclear whether these are having an effect. This is particularly the case for those of ethnic minority background, who may suffer from other disadvantages. This study examines the financial literacy of studen...

Purpose Williams and Williams (2012, 2017) find multiple entrepreneurial motivations are experienced by entrepreneurs in deprived areas at different points in time. Drawing on this prior work this study aims to explore how and why the shifted motivations evolve, as well as, what factors cause this change in deprived areas. The work draws upon tempo...

A potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the nature, rates and spatial configuration of innovation may change within and across cities. To examine these potential changes, this article draws on findings from data gathered through interviews, surveys and secondary data over two time periods: prior to the pandemic and during the fallout fr...

New path creation processes are a vital component of regional economic development. This paper establishes a behavioural framework to examine and understand such processes. It is argued that human agency and the network dynamics through which these agents interact are at the heart of new path creation processes. In particular, effective new path cr...

Studies have suggested that entrepreneurship is a key mechanism for rejuvenating and facilitating economic growth in deprived areas. To provide further understanding of the persistently low entrepreneurial intentions found in deprived areas this chapter identifies key mechanisms and theoretical frameworks that link the formation of appropriate huma...

This briefing note provides an overview of some of the key results for the East Midlands as drawn from the UK Competitiveness Index (UKCI) 2021 report. It concentrates on the main patterns and changes evident for the localities within the region. For full details of the UKCI and position of the localities within the East Midlands relative to those...

First introduced and published in 2000, this UK Competitiveness Index (UKCI) report represents the 2021 edition of the report. The UKCI provides a benchmarking of the competitiveness of the UK’s localities, and it has been designed to be an integrated measure of competitiveness focusing on both the development and sustainability of businesses and t...

This article argues that theories of economic development and productivity should move beyond the generally known factors and mechanisms of such development. It is theoretically proposed and empirically illustrated that differences in human behavior are significant deep-rooted causes of spatial economic and productivity disparities. The article exa...

This report examines how entrepreneurial innovation has been affected by the initial stages of the Global Covid-19 Pandemic. This analysis may provide some pointers as to the potential longer-run effects of the Pandemic that will only become fully evident after a number of years. The analysis is based upon data drawn from measures of entrepreneuria...

The concentration of the COVID-19 disease in densely populated cities may lead to the long-term retreat of both people and economic activity from these urban areas. Furthermore, there is the possibility that an upshot from the pandemic is that human behavioural changes may impact on the nature, rates and spatial configuration of innovation, especia...

Culture matters for regional economic development and is one source of cognitive lock-in that influences path creation and dependency. However, little is known about the sources of regional variation in culture. This study explores the long-term imprinting effect of the Industrial Revolution on cultural practices across local communities in Britain...

Innovation, entrepreneurship, knowledge, and human capital are widely acknowledged as key levers of development. Yet what are the sources of these factors, and why do they differ in their endowment across regions? Motivated by a belief that theories of economic development can move beyond the generally accepted explanations of location and the orga...

This chapter argues that the roots of behavioural theories of development relate to the interplay between cultural and psychological factors, with institutions playing a moderating role between intended and actualized human behaviour. It proposes that the forms of human agency associated with such behaviour are likely to impact upon urban and regio...

This chapter introduces the book and the fact that it is motivated by a belief that theories of economic development can move beyond the generally known factors and mechanisms of such development, with the aim being to analyse deeper and more fundamental causes of uneven development. In particular, influences such as innovation, entrepreneurship, k...

This chapter argues that constructs such as self-efficacy and innovativeness are closely associated with agency. This refers to the ability of individuals to make changes to their environment, and the chapter discusses that this is not just related to an individual’s own abilities and skills but is also constrained by their power relations. It is a...

This chapter explores whether community culture and personality traits are associated with entrepreneurial activities. It seeks to consider the importance of personality held at the individual level and culture held at the group level. This allows the connections between the foundations of the behavioural model of regional development—community cul...

This chapter empirically investigates the relationships that hold between culture, personality psychology, and institutions. The analysis recognizes that any relationships between these constructs are likely to be bidirectional, and therefore it is inappropriate to assume that one can be regarded as an independent factor that drives the others. The...

This chapter establishes a more extended and nuanced behavioural model of urban and regional economic development and returns to considering what ‘development’ actually means and how outcomes can be measured. This reflects a move away from depending solely on traditional measures of urban and regional development based on Gross Domestic Product. In...

This chapter argues that the role of behavioural perspectives, encompassing culture, psychology, and agency, can provide new insights into the persistence of the long-term unevenness of development across cities and regions. A psychocultural theory of development builds upon person–environment theories that have previously sought to explain ecologi...

This chapter argues that the type and nature of human agency existing within cities and regions at particular points in their development are significant factors explaining the capacity of these places to achieve economic transformation and renewal. In particular, it seeks to set notions of entrepreneurial human agency within wider and emerging the...

This chapter seeks to explore the role of culture in relation to economic development in a place-based context, and secondly to examine the adoption of a more holistic perspective of behaviour at the regional and local level that considers specific configurations of human behaviour, which in combination influence the outputs attained. In particular...

As a means of seeking to better understand and consider the deeper and less transparent drivers of urban and regional development, this chapter examines the institutional determinants of the innovation and growth capability and capacity of cities and regions. From the institutional perspective, cities and regions are portrayed as growth systems in...

The UK's decision to leave the European Union based on the 2016 referendum has created considerable uncertainty in the UK economy. For UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to survive, export markets may become more important. This chapter examines the impact from the presence of foreign direct investment (FDI). The influence of gend...

Huggins and Thompson elaborate the importance of psychocultural behavior and economic competitiveness and development. Behavioral economics highlights the limitations of the rational-choice approach in explaining economic decision-making actions. In this approach they elaborate the role of individual and collective behavior and socio-spatial commun...

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...

This paper addresses the ‘network’ and ‘open innovation’ paradigms by seeking to examine the factors associated with structural positioning within university–industry networks. Drawing upon a network analysis of knowledge-based ties held by universities across the regions of the UK, it is found that those universities with the most central position...

A potential new phenomenon resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is that human behavioural changes may impact on the spatial configuration of innovation and subsequently productivity. In particular, it is suggested that the concentration of the COVID-19 disease in densely populated cities may lead to a retreat of both people and economic activity fr...

Foreign direct investment brings both increased competitive pressures and opportunities for domestic Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Competition may force them to seek new international markets, but also provide access to international customers. However, as economies become more knowledge‐based in order to access international markets,...

An emerging position within theories of entrepreneurship and regional development concerns the role of human behaviour. This paper argues that the type and nature of human agency related to entrepreneurship is a significant factor in explaining the capacity of regions to achieve economic evolution through renewal and innovative transformation. It i...

UK Competitiveness Index (UKCI) report for 2019. This report covers the latest UKCI figures proving a measure of competitiveness for a majority of local authority district, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and cities in Great Britain. The latest report also provides forecasts of real GDP per capita growth for local areas based on the UKCI for a numbe...

It is recognised that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have relatively low levels of management and employee training. In part, this reflects training being a risky investment, with opportunity costs. This article utilises prospect and regulatory focus theory to provide greater insight into which business owners/managers are more likely t...

The UK's decision to leave the European Union based on the 2016 referendum has created considerable uncertainty in the UK economy. For UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) looking to survive, export markets may become more important. This chapter examines the impact from the presence of foreign direct investment (FDI). The influence of gend...

Urban and regional development theory is largely rooted in explanations based on the location, agglomeration and organisation of firms, industries and capital. Contemporary economic geography theory, however, is moving towards a (re)turn to addressing the role of human behaviour in determining urban and regional development outcomes. This article f...

A renewed emphasis on behavioural traits has emerged as a means of explaining regional and local differences in economic performance and development. Given this, the aim of this study is to identify distinct local psychocultural behavioural profiles, and to examine the extent to which these are associated with economic growth. Combining theories of...

Both domestic small- and medium-sized enterprises and foreign direct investment are often seen as key parts in helping economies to withstand and recover from shocks. What is less clear is the impact that a greater presence of foreign-owned firms has on domestic enterprises’ ability to withstand such shocks and for entrepreneurial activity to renew...

Studies investigating the challenges and barriers faced by ethnic minority entrepreneurs have often concentrated on areas where there is a large supportive ethnic minority community. Less work has been conducted on the experience of those entrepreneurs operating in cities where such ethnic resources may be less widely available. Considered from the...

There have been calls within the literature studying local and regional economic development to better understand the role of ‘microprocesses’ on ‘macrostructures’ within cities and regions, as well as the impact of macrostructures on these microprocesses (Peck, 2005; Maskell and Malmberg, 2007; MacKinnon et al., 2009). One of the aims of this repo...

There is a growing recognition that culture, both that specifically related to entrepreneurship and more generally that underpinning social and community activities, plays a role in facilitating economic development. Little attention, however, has been paid to the extent to which entrepreneurial activities are themselves resilient in the face of ec...

Spatial approaches to examining entrepreneurship have increasingly built on theories of social capital. However, the nature and extent of local social capital in less successful deprived communities remains under researched and inadequately understood. This article examines the association between social capital and entrepreneurship in a deprived u...

In recent years, increased attention has been given to role of inter-organisational knowledge networks in promoting regional economic growth. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence base concerning the extent to which inter-organisational knowledge networks influence regional growth is at best patchy. This article utilises a panel data regression appr...

In many developed countries there has been a shift from grants to contracts as a source of local public sector funding of the third sector. Smaller third sector organizations may struggle to compete for this funding due to the complex process of accessing and maintaining this funding and conveying their capabilities to funding providers. This study...

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurship in deprived urban neighbourhoods (DUNs). While there is a great deal of research on social capital, its usage and value in deprived areas is an under-researched topic. Drawing on survey data, it is found that social capital in the form of network ties w...

Despite a growing body of research on firm survival, little is known about the factors impacting upon survival rates at a micro-spatial level. This study, therefore, analyses firm survival across local environments in the context of a peripheral region; namely, the case of Wales in the UK. It examines how theories relating to human capital, growth...

The aim of this Handbook is to take stock of regional competitiveness and complementary concepts as a means of presenting a state-of-the-art discussion of the contemporary theories, perspectives and empirical explanations that help make sense of the determinants of uneven development across regions. Drawing on an international field of leading scho...

This paper considers the open innovation paradigm in the context of entrepreneurial firms. Based on an analysis of survey data, it examines the relationship between network ties and innovation. These are considered as the strategic network ties associated with open innovation and the embedded ties associated with entrepreneurial networks. It is fou...

This 2016 edition of the UK Competitiveness Index (UKCI) represents a benchmarking of the competitiveness of the UK’s localities, including its cities, and Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas and the equivalent city regions in the devolved regions of Wales and Scotland.

This report examines the economic competitiveness of a cohort of regions in the Middle East. It explores the fact that whilst many Middle Eastern regions may owe some of their competitiveness to the natural advantages of oil reserves, for others their competitiveness has been achieved through other means.

Purpose – There has been considerable debate about the impact that Foreign Direct Investment has upon home grown enterprise (Pathak et al. , 2015). The purpose of this paper is to examine how foreign business ownership at the local level affects the decision of individual UK entrepreneurs to export their production. Design/methodology/approach – T...

Entrepreneurship is increasingly acknowledged as an important factor underlying uneven economic geographies. Similarly, spatial patterns of entrepreneurship are increasingly considered to relate to the nature of the culture present within particular places. However, the nature of these relationships remains relatively unexplored, and this study add...

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 the United Kingdom, as in other countries, Third Sector Organisations have been drawn towards income sources associated with trading activities, but many remain reliant on grant funding to support such activities. Using a multivariate analysis approach and data from the National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises, it is found that tradin...

Knowledge accessing from external organizations is important to firms, especially entrepreneurial ones that often cannot generate internally all the knowledge necessary for innovation. There is, however, a lack of evidence concerning the association between the evolution of firms and the evolution of their networks. The aim of this paper is to begi...

This paper analyses how different forms of social capital are associated with different types of innovation across regional policy interventions. Taking the case of a continuum of three policy interventions incorporating both ‘hard’/traditional and ‘soft’/non-traditional innovation measures, the analysis finds that differing regional innovation pro...

The 20Twenty Leadership Programme was developed by Cardiff Metropolitan University as an executive education programme to be delivered within South Wales to small businesses. It is funded by the European Social Fund, administered by the Welsh European Funding Office and has the key aim of developing small and medium sized enterprises’ growth potent...

This article explores the direct influence of school-based enterprise education on career choices and, particularly, how this might be limited as entrepreneurial intentions dissipate over time. We propose that it is the indirect influence of school-based enterprise education, through encouraging voluntary engagement with other forms of enterprise e...

This paper examines localities in terms of the impact of community culture on the resilience of their entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on a regression analysis of data covering localities in Britain for the period 2004–2011, it is found that an open and diverse culture is likely to aid the renewal and reorientation of local entrepreneurial activit...

Despite the growing acknowledgement that entrepreneurship is an important driver of regional innovation and growth, the role of the networks in these processes has been less formally examined. In order to address this gap, this paper proposes that the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth is governed by a series of n...

Purpose – Although foreign direct investment and entrepreneurship are potential routes to recovery (Girma and Wakelin, 2001; Lyon et al. , 2002), existing literature is divided on the relationship between the two. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of foreign investment on the local SME sector after the 2008 financial crisis. De...

Although connections between university enterprise courses and entrepreneurial activity have been examined, less work has investigated the intended timing of future entrepreneurial activities. Using data from a survey of U.K. business students, it is found that those intending to enter entrepreneurship right away place less emphasis on avoiding str...

This paper positions the concept of regional competitiveness within theories concerning regional economic growth and stages of economic development. It examines the sources of regional competitiveness encompassing an analysis based on the particular stage of economic development that the nations within which regions are situated have reached. As a...

Interest in the proposed connection between culture and entrepreneurship has grown significantly in recent years. However, less attention has been given to the nature of the overall impact of this proposed association on development outcomes, particularly at the local level. In response, this paper analyses the relationship between the nature of th...

The evolution of a regional economy and its competitiveness capacity may involve multiple independent trajectories through which different sets of resources and capabilities evolve together. However, there is a dearth of evidence concerning how these trends are occurring across the globe. Based on the underlying tenets of the streams of research re...

Huggins R. and Thompson P. Culture and place-based development: a socio-economic analysis, Regional Studies. Cultural factors are often absent from analyses of economic change and development, divorcing the nature of social places from the economic spaces within which they are situated. In response to this, the paper seeks both to conceptualize and...

China's spectacular economic growth has been spatially uneven, with much development occurring in eastern coastal areas. In particular, three metropolitan ‘super-regions’ have become China's most competitive knowledge-based economies, consisting of the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Gulf Region. This paper benchmarks the...

The aim of this book is to consider theoretically the notion of the global competitiveness of regions, as well as giving attention as to how such competitiveness may be empirically measured. With this in mind, the book has three specific objectives: first, to place the concept of regional competitiveness within the context of regional economic deve...

As a major funder of the Third Sector, recent cuts in UK Government spending may require Third Sector Organisations (TSOs) to turn to other sources of funding, such as trading activities and public sector contracts. It has been argued that such changes can lead to economic objectives overwhelming social ones. This study utilises data from the 2008...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of developing more active web sites and increasing e-commerce on the relationship between innovation and growth performance in SMEs. Using the existing literature and empirical analysis the study seeks to consider the potential of engagement with the internet to achieve the often hard to attain ambiti...

This article seeks to examine how the changing institutional environment concerning local and regional economic development in Britain is related to the changing competitive fortunes of its localities and regions. Drawing on evidence from the UK Competitiveness Index, it is found that the institutional shift toward a post-regional political economy...

A signiicant forum of scholarly and practitioner-based research has developed in recent years that has sought both to theorize upon and empirically measure the competitiveness of regions. However, the disparate and fragmented nature of this work has led to the lack of a substantive theoretical foundation underpinning the various analyses and measur...

Abstract The potential of the Internet to both geographically expand customer bases and provide a source of sales growth has led to a rapid embracement of the Internet by a majority of small businesses in the United Kingdom. However, many studies suggest that much of this adoption takes the form of simple Web sites representing little more than an...

The need to better understand the mechanisms underlying regional growth patterns is widely recognized. This article argues that regional growth is partly a function of the value created through inter-organizational flows of knowledge within and across regions. It is proposed that investment in calculative networks by organizations to access knowled...

The potential of the Internet to both geographically expand customer bases and provide a source of sales growth has led to a rapid embracement of the Internet by a majority of small businesses in the United Kingdom. However, many studies suggest that much of this adoption takes the form of simple Web sites representing little more than an electroni...

Type of Paper: Research Objectives: Social entrepreneurship is now embedded within policy objectives set by national and devolved regional governments. This paper provides an overview of who is involved in social entrepreneurship and where these activities are in Wales. Prior Work: The dual or triple bottom line of social enterprise increases the...

More and more universities are now delivering courses and programs to develop social awareness, but the literature on the effectiveness of these courses is currently very limited. With the introduction of "social entrepreneurship" as a new discipline within the wider ethics and social education banner, this pedagogic study explores the effectivenes...

The modern globalised economy is prone to periods of change and uncertainty as experienced in the economic downturn following 2007. Others have noted that this has led to the shortening of product life cycles (Tassey, 2000), and the greater importance of innovation in order to retain competitiveness (Smith, 2002; Huggins and Izushi, 2007). These ar...

This paper focuses on the role of inter-organizational networks as facilitators of knowledge flow and innovation. It introduces the concepts of network capital and network space to complement existing notions of social capital and geographic space as explanatory factors underpinning the impact of networks. Empirically, the paper analyses the inter-...