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This paper examines the transformative potential of inward investment on cluster development. It undertakes this through the lens of the evolving semiconductor cluster in South Wales (UK) and within a context whereby the semiconductor industry is under pressure with government interventions to improve prospects being implemented at a time of increasing global tension in the industry. The paper reveals the potential of inward investors as agents of regional economic change and cluster development. It shows that the emerging South Wales cluster distinguishes itself in terms of investment motivation, commodities and services produced. These factors result in growing embeddedness in relation to elements such as joint research with higher education and intra-firm collaboration to develop new products and processes. The paper concludes that investments based on risky and fast-changing technologies in industries such as the semiconductor sector necessarily create challenges for policy makers. These are best managed by placing greater emphasis on developing the conditions to satisfy the needs of such knowledge-intensive industries in relation to labour market conditions, factor conditions and market access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature addresses the costs and benefits associated with relationship banking, particularly for smaller firms, but with much of this work focused on normal trading conditions. Covid-19 provides an ideal testbed to explore the resilience of relationship banking. We examine whether the presence of closer pre-Covid ties between SMEs and their banks helps in accessing funds in the Covid-19 pandemic period. Then are ties between relationship bankers and SME borrowers a case of 'true love' or rather are the parties more akin to 'fair-weather friends?' Data from the UK SME Finance Monitor from 2018Q2-2020Q3 is used in this paper to examine this question. Our analysis suggests that relationship banking was important for the acquisition of bank credit pre-Covid-19 but was of limited influence in post-Covid-19 lending behaviour. Banks treated SMEs that had a good relationship with them in the same way as those that did not and with public interventions to support lenders material in this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 addresses the case study of the Cardiff city region in the United Kingdom. It indicates that the revitalisation of lagging regions through an entrepreneurial ecosystem approach is likely to be contingent upon a number of important components: (1) access to potential entrepreneurial agency, (2) the engagement of 'enlightened' local political agency and (3) the formation of a collective agency across entrepreneurial and political agents as well as other relevant stakeholders. The emergence of collective agency in the city region is found to have led to new policies, networks and entrepreneurial support within the high-tech industry, coupled with the development of new industrial paths and improved economic conditions. The paper argues that adopting an agency-based approach to analysing entrepreneurial emergence highlights the importance of key human actors in such emergence. It is concluded that lagging regions can trigger a process of development through new path creation stemming from the emergence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has examined geographical variations in SME access to external finance, especially bank loans. Rather less attention has been paid to how far SME equity access difficulties in more peripheral regions, and cities within these regions, is a demand or supply side issue, and how far equity investments are concentrated in specific urban areas in peripheral regions. This paper examines these topics through an analysis of small firm equity deals across the UK regions, before focusing on the case of the Welsh economy. In the case analysis a low equilibrium for small business equity investment in Wales is identified, with low demand and poor supply of equity, but with a relatively high concentration of equity deals in the Cardiff urban area. The paper examines the potential implications of a low equity equilibrium and provides a challenge for further research in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]