PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Last week, the American industrial giant GE published the results of its “ Global Innovation Barometer ”, a survey of 2,800 senior business executives in 22 countries. It is a fascinating study, in that it gives an insight into how the business community views innovation and, more importantly, its impact on the competitiveness of individual companies. Not surprisingly, the USA is viewed as having the best reputation globally for innovation, followed by Germany, Japan, China and South Korea. The UK is ranked seventh, behind India, with 39 per cent of British respondents stating that government had not been successful in supporting research and innovation. What should be of interest to policymakers is that the study shows the belief of businesses in innovation as the main driver of competitiveness, prosperity and job creation, although the current uncertainty within global markets is having a major effect on their ability to innovate. In fact, nine out of ten respondents sa...

As governments around the World look to reignite their economies, there is increasing interest in developing policies to encourage greater entrepreneurship. This is not surprising given that a range of studies have demonstrated the impact of both new and small firms on the economic prosperity of many nations. Earlier this week, a major study from the European Commission showed that 85 per cent of net new jobs created in Europe between 2002 and 2010 came from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), far higher than their 67 per cent share of total employment . That, in itself, shows the vital importance of small firms at this critical time for Europe. However, the one statistic that screams out for politicians to take notice and reach out for new policies immediately is the finding that all net employment growth has been generated by newly born SMEs (i.e. those aged up to five years old). In fact, the number of jobs created by new firms – 17.5 million - more than compensated...

Another paper has been published from the research undertaken by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research team for Wales. The paper " Differences in perceptions of access to finance between potential male and female entrepreneurs: Evidence from the UK " has been published in International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research(Vol 18, No 1). The purpose of the study is to examine whether being female increases the probability that an individual feels difficulty in obtaining finance is a barrier to starting a business. The study aims to extend this to examine if a pure gender effect exists or whether it is the interaction of gender with demographic, economic and perceptual characteristics that plays the most important role in the perception of financial constraint. Although actual financial barriers faced by female entrepreneurs have been extensively studied, this is one of the first studies to focus on the concept of perceived financial constraints face...

Daily Post column 16th January 2012 During last week, it may have dawned on Ed Miliband that being Leader of the Opposition is probably the worst job in British politics. At a time when the economy is struggling and the UK government is managing a massive reduction in public expenditure, his popularity should be at an all-time high. Yet, not only have the Conservatives overtaken Labour in the polls but, following a series of gaffes reported in the press, even Nick Clegg is rated higher than Mr Miliband. As cartoonists continue to draw him as Gromit, there are already whispers of plots to replace him only fifteen months after he narrowly won the Labour Party leadership. And when you start to become a comic caricature, then it becomes difficult for the public to consider you otherwise. In fact, other leaders of the opposition have faced the same problem in recent times. Michael Foot, one of the great political thinkers of his generation, was reduced to comparisons with a tr...

Over the weekend, I had a twitter dialogue with Rhuannedd Richards, currently chief executive of Plaid Cymru. She was responding to a comment by the First Minister that having access to the UK Government's international division, UKTI, was one advantage that Wales had as being part of the UK. Rhuannedd noted that she was "Surprised that Carwyn Jones used how Wales "benefits" from UKTI to justify continuation of UK. Wales has never been important to UKTI". I am wondering where she received this information as it is certainly different to what I was told by UKTI in a meeting a few weeks ago. Indeed,  I was informed that UKTI had supported 376 Welsh firms to internationalise their activities even though this should be a devolved matter. Indeed,  more crucially, I wonder how this compares to whatever services are now offered by the Welsh Government, especially given that it was Ieuan Wyn Jones, when economic development minister, who abolished IBW (Internatio...

Western Mail column 14th January 2012 The picture of Wales globally is one that is normally a mixture of coal, male voice choirs, daffodils and rugby. Yet, it is easy to forget that one of the greatest gifts that this small nation gave to the World originated with an ironmonger’s son from Mid-Wales. Born in 1771 in Newtown, Robert Owen was the creator and inspiration behind the co-operative movement where the business is owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. Although most of his work in this area took place in New Lanarkshire in Scotland rather than the country of his birth, his legacy lives on not only in Wales but also in many other countries across the World. For example, one out of every four people in Germany belongs to co-operatives whilst 30,000 co-operatives provide more than 2 million jobs in the USA. In New Zealand, 22% of the country’s wealth is generated by co-operative enterprises, especially in the food industry where they have...

The main consumer trends for 2012, as identified by  trendwatching.com . View more documents from trendwatching.com

Fascinating slides on the global themes that affect every type of business, regardless of country in 2012. How will you take advantage of these over the next 12 months? Next week, a list of 12 Consumer trends for 2012.

The Western Mail today leads with an important story on how a so-called “brain drain” is affecting the nation.  The main data for the story is taken from an excellent report, entitled Welsh Graduate Mobility and undertaken by the Welsh academics Dr Gillian Bristow, Dr Madeleine Pill, Rhys Davies and Dr Stephen Drinkwater.  The study “seeks to establish the extent to which Wales retains its graduate labour in employment; to estimate the labour market outcomes for “Welsh‟ graduates (i.e. those born in Wales) and to investigate whether and how these may change and what factors may become more significant over time. In so doing, the report focuses on analysing the location and employment outcomes of successive “young” graduate cohorts since the 1992 expansion of Higher Education. However, it would seem that one of the more controversial findings of the report, and one that undermines the whole basis of the current Welsh Government higher education policy, has been missed ...

Given the recent spats between the devolved nations and the UK Government over the decision by David Cameron to exercise the UK veto over the EU treaty in December, there have been numerous statements on how this will have an effect on Welsh trade with the European Union. According to a recent statement from the First Minister of Wales , "some 50% of exports from Wales are to the EU". Yet recent data from the Welsh Government's own statistics suggest that it is considerably less than that, as figure 1 below shows. In fact, only Scotland had a lower proportion of exports with the EU in the third quarter of 2011. Will this mean that any downturn in the eurozone will affect Wales less than the majority of other UK regions? Certainly, as figure 2 demonstrates, there has been a gradual long term decline in the proportion of Welsh exports that go to EU countries since 1999.  The export profile of Wales has changed considerably since devolution and whilst Europe is still ...

Often, it is far easier to be pessimistic about the prospects for the UK economy which, given the fragile state of business and consumer confidence, ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy.  With official sources suggesting that the UK economy's growth will be just 0.7 per cent in 2012 , it is not surprising that many commentators are queuing up to talk down the economic prospects of the nation. The latest organisation to support this view is the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) , which predicted that the number of people out of work would reach 2.85 million by the end of next year, with the unemployment rate for the UK rising to 8.8 per cent, the highest figure since 1994. Of course, it is not only what is going on within Britain itself that is important to our economy and it will be events elsewhere that will probably have the greatest influence on the nation’s recovery during the next twelve months. The one thing most economists agree on is tha...