Gartcosh Steel Mill regeneration project

New hi-tech, innovative businesses are springing up where Scotland's heavy industries once reigned supreme. Redevelopment of the former Ravenscraig steel works in Lanarkshire is continuing apace with a new town centre, complete with commercial facilities, soon to be constructed. The site of the former Gartcosh Steel Mill, also in Lanarkshire, is also being transformed, and architects and engineers from the University of Strathclyde are driving forward the plans. Gartcosh Business Interchange is set to become a new 50-hectare business location which has already been selected as the location for the major new office campus for Scotland's new FBI-style crime unit.It is anticipated that Gartcosh will create up to 170,000 sq ft of business space which could support up to 4000 jobs

Central North Sea - CO2 Storage Hub Enabling CCS Deployment in the UK and Europe

Carbon Capture & Storage is widely recognised as a vital technology which will play a significant role in the generation of low carbon electricity. CCS has the potential to reduce the carbon emissions of fossil fuelled power stations by as much as 90% as well as offering the only realistic solution to heavy industrial emitters such as steel mills, petrochemical refineries and cement manufacturing plants. Projects which can combine capture of emissions from power generation as well industrial emitters will enable the development of CO2 transport infrastructure which can act to safeguard existing employment in carbon-intensive industries within the UK and EU. CCS development zones can also attract new energy intensive industries to locate into an area with an established network of CO2 pipelines. That means low marginal costs to connect into a guaranteed network for transportation and storage of captured CO2. Recent studies examining the levelised cost of electricity have consistently demonstrated that CCS will be competitive with renewable generation technologies such as offshore wind. CCS provides a low-carbon solution to the issue of intermittency which is inevitable with wind power, thereby helping to address the need for energy security in a future which will see a growth in the percentage of power generation from renewable sources. Fossil fuels will be part of the energy and industry system for many decades to come. CCS is the only viable option for abating those CO2 emissions. The creation of a CCS industry in the UK will provide opportunities for economic growth through the retention of many thousands of high-value jobs, creation of thousands of new jobs, increased manufacturing activity, as well as retention of the UK's world leading oil & gas supply chain for home investment and billions of pounds in export services.Carbon Capture & Storage is widely recognised as a vital technology which will play a significant role in the generation of low carbon electricity. CCS has the potential to reduce the carbon emissions of fossil fuelled power stations by as much as 90% as well as offering the only realistic solution to heavy industrial emitters such as steel mills, petrochemical refineries and cement manufacturing plants. Projects which can combine capture of emissions from power generation as well industrial emitters will enable the development of CO2 transport infrastructure which can act to safeguard existing employment in carbon-intensive industries within the UK and EU. CCS development zones can also attract new energy intensive industries to locate into an area with an established network of CO2 pipelines. That means low marginal costs to connect into a guaranteed network for transportation and storage of captured CO2. Recent studies examining the levelised cost of electricity have consistently demonstrated that CCS will be competitive with renewable generation technologies such as offshore wind. CCS provides a low-carbon solution to the issue of intermittency which is inevitable with wind power, thereby helping to address the need for energy security in a future which will see a growth in the percentage of power generation from renewable sources. Fossil fuels will be part of the energy and industry system for many decades to come. CCS is the only viable option for abating those CO2 emissions. The creation of a CCS industry in the UK will provide opportunities for economic growth through the retention of many thousands of high-value jobs, creation of thousands of new jobs, increased manufacturing activity, as well as retention of the UK's world leading oil & gas supply chain for home investment and billions of pounds in export services

Regional policy spillovers : the national impact of demand-side policy in an interregional model of the UK economy

UK regional policy has been advocated as a means of reducing regional disparities and stimulating national growth. However, there is limited understanding of the interregional and national effects of such a policy. This paper uses an interregional computable general equilibrium model to identify the national impact of a policy-induced regional demand shock under alternative labour market closures. Our simulation results suggest that regional policy operating solely on the demand side has significant national impacts. Furthermore, the effects on the nontarget region are particularly sensitive to the treatment of the regional labour market

Social innovation, social enterprise, and local public services: undertaking transformation?

This article discusses some of the challenges encountered in embedding effective and sustainable social enterprise and social innovation within established political institutional systems to deliver local welfare services. It draws upon evidence analyzing social innovation and social enterprise in Scotland to contribute to the debate over whether social innovations and social enterprises are able to meet expectations in addressing the significant challenges faced by welfare systems. The article clarifies the meaning of both these contested concepts and explains how social innovation and social enterprise relate to similar ideas in social and public policy. The evidence suggests that actually operating social enterprises and social innovations do not embrace the image of them promoted by enthusiasts as either “entrepreneurial” or “innovative”. Furthermore, they bring distinctive challenges in delivering local welfare services, including potential tensions or rivalry with existing public agencies. The article suggests that social enterprises and social innovations are not themselves instigators nor catalysts for systemic change, but that their impact is constrained by structural conditions and institutional factors beyond their control

Seasonality of Overseas Tourism Demand in Scotland: A Regional Analysis

This paper examines patterns of seasonality in international tourism to the regions of Scotland. Quarterly numbers of overnight stays are disaggregated by trip purpose. Seasonality in vacation tourism to Scotland is shown to be defined by more than a simple rural–urban division. Overseas visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism is largely an urban phenomenon and is consequently less seasonal than vacation tourism. Lower seasonal concentration of VFR tourism is not uniform across the regions. Although levels of seasonal intensity of business tourism to the three principal cities of Scotland are approximately the same, there are noticeable variations over time

Knowledge acquisition for the internationalization of the smaller firm: content and sources

Internationalization process research emphasizes accumulated experience and networks as sources of knowledge for internationalization. Our understanding, however, as to what this knowledge is in practice for smaller firms, the challenges they face in acquiring it, and how they address those challenges is limited. Integrating organizational learning concepts with our theoretical understanding of the small firm internationalization process, we develop a new framework for understanding knowledge acquisition processes, which are examined with a case study of 10 Scottish internationalizing firms. We find smaller firms may not have relevant experience or useful networks, and rely on sources rarely recognised before. Firms used recruitment, government advisors and consultants to acquire indirect experience. Recruitment is a source of market and technological knowledge and government advisors and consultants a source of internationalization knowledge. Accessing internal information is important for firms that have internationalized. Our integrated theoretical framework identifies knowledge content and sources that are critical for internationalization, but that may be absent

Balamory revisited: An evaluation of the screen tourism destination-tourist nexus

Post-print version previously archived in Stirling University archive. Final version published by Elsevier; available online at http://www.journals.elsevier.com

Establishing a new UK finance escalator for innovative SMEs: the roles of the Enterprise Capital Funds and Angel Co-investment Fund

This paper examines UK public policy addressing the seed and early stage equity finance gap since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Drawing on lessons learned from recent studies of UK and international government equity schemes, two contemporary models of government backed equity finance are examined. The focus is on the Enterprise Capital Funds (ECFs) and the Angel Co-investment Fund (ACF), the UK government’s main schemes operating in the sub-£2m equity finance gap to address the capital requirements for developing the UK’s young, potential high growth businesses. The paper highlights the shortcomings of traditional interim fund performance analysis and presents current demand and supply side evidence that establishes that these schemes are making attributable impacts on their portfolio businesses and the wider UK economy. It also demonstrates that they are playing important roles in the establishment of a new post GFC UK finance escalator. However, whilst these schemes were found to be currently complementary and effective, their future roles within the UK’s evolving post GFC seed and early stage equity markets are also considered. Key Words: Government Equity Schemes, Venture Capital, Potential High Growth SME

Architecture, symbolic capital and elite mobilizations: The case of the Royal Bank of Scotland corporate campus

In this article, we apply the conceptual framework of Pierre Bourdieu, in particular forms of capital, social fields, field of power and modes of domination, to demonstrate how the study of a symbolically powerful building can provide insights into what are often opaque elite interactions. In order to do this, we focus on the corporate campus headquarters of a powerful financial institution, the Royal Bank of Scotland in the context of Scotland in the period 2000–2009. We pose the following questions: What is the relationship between corporate space and the field of power? What role does a corporate building play in circuits of capital conversion? What does this case tell us about the role of architecture in elite mobilisations? In addressing these questions, we contribute to critical organisation studies by identifying and theorising the role of corporate space in inter-elite dynamics and circuits of capital conversion. This approach, we argue, provides a methodological lever which could be applied to other symbolically important buildings in order to understand the nature and role of inter-field interactions in the conception and realisation of such buildings