ISBE 2021: Entrepreneurial Governance


Chairs:

Professor Joyce Liddle, Newcastle Business School, University of Northumbria

Professor John Shutt, Newcastle Business School, University of Northumbria

Launched in 2019, the track covers governance, politics, entrepreneurship and regional development.

Aims of the track

  • To surface new research on entrepreneurial governance in UK, Ireland and beyond
  • Identify the key characteristics of entrepreneurial governance in local and regional places, globally
  • Build on earlier research on places and leadership, public entrepreneurship, leadership in sustainable regional development

Austerity is over, or so it is claimed, but the impacts continue to affect local and regional governance across the UK and much wider. However the state of public services still matters and there is a widespread need for increased research and development on the public sector, and on regional and local innovative and entrepreneurial responses and public policies over the long term.

Local government has been at the sharp end of austerity cuts and faces a bleak round of increased restructuring, as well as further staff and service reductions.

From a UK viewpoint, new research is also needed in response to exiting the European Union, and in meeting escalating service demands. More widely, a growing and ageing population and the consequential need for integrated Health and Social Care, new integrated Transport policies, as well as changes in policies for Education, Criminal Justice, Housing, Energy and Culture all indicate the growing need for economic and social renewal and regeneration. All demand fresh ideas, innovative approaches, and policy capacity building within an increasingly complex global and EU environment.

We need to develop a body of research on how entrepreneurial governance at local and regional levels are seeking new and innovative approaches, including joint working and the involvement of broader stakeholder groups such as the voluntary, community and third sectors . High-quality evidence-based research and co-operative working with public and third sector agencies is at the heart of new approaches to entrepreneurial governance, and we need to collect, analyse and share data on how public and private sector entrepreneurialism can motivate city and regional actors.

The new national UK Industrial Strategy, the need for Local Industrial Strategies, and the consultation on the Shared Prosperity Fund to replace EU Funds are all exercising the minds of local and regional state actors and forcing them to become more innovative and entrepreneurial as the UK may exit the EU. Comparative research on entrepreneurial governance to show how local and regional actors respond to national policy shifts will become more important than ever in future.

This track will link to, and absorb the previous Public Sector Entrepreneurial track as it will build on current research by encompassing a broader local and regional focus for the enquiry. It will also be set with in current devolutionary pressures and new institutional architectures of Mayoral Governance and Combined Authorities. Both are the preferred options for driving both economic and social growth, and these forms of public/private and third sector agencies are being tasked with developing new, innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to some of the myriad of problems associated with development.