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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 interaction factors that trigger enablers are reflexively declared. The three strands of the LGA triple helix network system are institutions, industry and government. In this case study the LGA's overall management of its regional stakeholder relationships resulted in impediments that limit strong regional engagement. Importantly, the findings inform practitioners, policy-makers and research audiences of the nature of impediments and, by inference, the nature of enablers in LGA triple helix network systems.

This paper contributes to a new area of research, namely: institutional preparedness of economic development agencies for developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The cases presented illustrate variations in the micro-finance lender agency-enterprise development of processes for sharing vision and interdependence. In clarifying the nature of the agency-enterprise relationship along these two dimensions, we develop a set of propositions. Our model contends: 1) that effective processes for sharing vision and good cooperation maximise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge; 2) that ineffective processes for sharing vision and good cooperation lead to ad hoc explication of tacit knowledge; 3) ineffective processes for sharing vision and poor cooperation minimise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge; 4) effective processes for sharing vision and poor cooperation maximise the likelihood of explication of tacit knowledge.