impacts in uganda of rising global food prices the role of diversified staples and limited price transmission this study assesses the potential impact of rising world food prices on the welfare of ugandan households while uganda experienced sharply higher food prices in 2008 as a landlocked food exporting country the causes of those price changes were mainly regional and indirect rather than directly transmitted from global markets using trade volumes food prices and household survey data we describe how uganda unlike some other countries is partially shielded from direct impacts of global food price movements although the majority of ugandans are net food buyers the adverse impact at household level of rising global prices is moderated by the relatively large quantity and range of staples consumed that come from home production moreover several of these are not widely traded some population groups in uganda are vulnerable to rising food prices however primarily those for whom maize is an important staple including those dependent upon humanitarian relief and the urban poor only a relatively small group of ugandan households will benefit directly and immediately from rising food prices the significant net sellers of food crops constituting between 12 and 27 of the population in this assessment we do not estimate the level and extent of wider second round effects from these higher prices jel classification q18 r22

sme growth the relationship with business advice and external collaboration the paper presents multivariate analysis of the relationship of sme growth with the acquisition of external business advice whilst controlling for the influence of sme characteristics of age manufacturing services high technology innovator level of skill of the workforce exporter and number of competitors the relationship of external business advice with sme performance is statistically significant for only a small number of sources and fields obtaining external advice in fields such as business strategy and staff recruitment is associated with positive firm performance the main positive relationships of advice and performance are dominated by private sector sources such as lawyers suppliers customers and business friends relatives collaborative arrangements with suppliers nationally internationally have a strong positive relationship with employment and turnover growth collaboration with local suppliers has a strong positive relationship with growth in profitability there is little evidence of statistically significant relationships between government backed providers of business advice such as business link and firm performance

creating good public policy to support high growth firms writing in small business economics scott shane argues that policy makers should stop subsidising start ups and instead focus on supporting the small subset of new businesses with high growth potential however both shane and other scholars who have made the same argument only offer broad brush proposals to achieve this objective the aim of this article in contrast is to engage in a detailed discussion of how to create appropriate policies for high growth firms hgfs drawing on research in scotland we argue that policy makers are looking for hgfs in the wrong places the heterogeneous nature of hgfs in terms of sector age size and origins makes in impractical to target support on particular sectors technologies or types of firms e g new or r d intensive the article proposes a reorientation of hgfs both in terms of appropriate targeting and forms of support public policy also needs to focus on the retention of hgfs which are acquired by non local businesses finally policy makers need to properly reflect upon the specificities of their entrepreneurial environment when devising appropriate policy interventions

state intervention for food price stabilisation in africa can it work abstract although its arguments may have more general applicability this paper discusses the desirability and options for the stabilisation of staple food prices principally in eastern and southern africa it addresses three broad questions i why is stabilisation of food grain prices desirable ii what is technically feasible and iii can the governance and trade issues thrown up by suggested mechanisms be solved it considers a number of options for price stabilisation assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each and suggesting situations in which each may be appropriate

the ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship policy is policy formulation to blame entrepreneurship policy has been criticised for its lack of effectiveness some scholars such as scott shane in this journal have argued that it is bad public policy but this simply begs the question why the legislative process should generate bad policy to answer this question this study examines the uk s enterprise policy process in the 2009 2010 period it suggests that a key factor for the ineffectiveness of policy is how it is formulated this stage in the policy process is seldom visible to those outside of government departments and has been largely ignored by prior research the application of institutional theory provides a detailed theoretical understanding of the actors and the process by which enterprise policy is formulated we find that by opening up the black box of enterprise policy formulation the process is dominated by powerful actors who govern the process with their interests

rules of the game the place of institutions in regional economic change gertler m s rules of the game the place of institutions in regional economic change regional studies institutions exert a pervasive influence on the evolution and character of regional economies yet this role is poorly understood within recent debates on neoliberalism varieties of capitalism and other approaches to the study of economic change a reconstituted institutional economic geography must accommodate individual agency institutional evolution interscalar relations and comparative methodologies examining recent work on universities in local economies as well as on creativity based strategies and social inclusion polarization it is shown how locally distinctive institutional architectures shape evolutionary trajectories leading to differentiated social and economic outcomes the paper then enunciates some important principles of methodology and theory building in institutional analysis gertler m s les regles du jeu le role des institutions dans le developpement economique region

high growth firms introduction to the special section high growth firms hgfs have attracted considerable attention recently as academics and policymakers have increasingly recognized the highly skewed nature of many metrics of firm performance a small number of hgfs drives a disproportionately large amount of job creation while the average firm has a limited impact on the economy this article explores the reasons for this increased interest summarizes the existing literature and highlights the methodological considerations that constrain and bias research this special section draws attention to the importance of hgfs for future industrial performance explores their unusual growth trajectories and strategies and highlights the lack of persistence of high growth consequently while hgfs are important for understanding the economy and developing public policy they are unlikely to be useful vehicles for public policy given the difficulties involved in predicting which firms will grow the lack of persistence in high growth levels and the complex and often indirect relationship between firm capability high growth and macro economic performance

what holds back high growth firms evidence from uk smes high growth firms are seen as vital for economic growth it is important for policy and theory to consider the barriers faced by firms achieving high growth and those with the potential to do so this article uses data for 4 858 uk smes to investigate the obstacles perceived by two sets of firms 1 firms in periods of high growth and 2 potential high growth firms which are observationally similar but are not achieving high growth the results suggest high growth firms perceive problems in six areas recruitment skill shortages obtaining finance cash flow management skills and finding suitable premises potential high growth firms feel held back by the economy obtaining finance cash flow and their management skills but are less likely to perceive regulation is a problem the results have implications for theory on high growth firms and policies focussed at them

what happens to gazelles the importance of dynamic management strategy the starting point of this study is gibrat s law which is contrasted with strategic management this logic is subsequently applied to a group of remarkably dynamic high growth firms gazelles strategic management theory emphasises the importance of firms adjusting strategies in response to changes in the external environment in our study it is used to explain several key empirical findings using a novel british data set containing information on more than 100 gazelles these findings help explain 1 why gibrat s law of random firm growth processes does not generally hold 2 which strategy and environmental variables have a predictable influence on firm performance and 3 why routine application of best practice strategies is unlikely to foster firm growth in a changing economic environment in so doing this paper contributes to the large body of literature on small firm growth

high growth firms in changing competitive environments the us pharmaceutical industry 1963 to 2002 firms across sectors and regions are highly skewed in their ability to engage with innovation and even more skewed in their ability to translate investments in innovation into higher growth recent attention has been placed on the importance of high growth firms hgf for innovation policy our paper explores under what conditions hgf matter for translating r d investments into economic growth and how this depends on firm specific and industry specific factors we use quantile regression techniques to study the r d growth relationship in hgf compared to low growth firms unlike previous studies we pay particular attention to whether this relationship depends on the particular period in the industry s life cycle we focus on the us pharmaceutical industry from 1963 to 2002 and find that the r d growth relationship is sensitive to the changing competitive environment over the industry s history which suggests that innovation policy must focus not only on firm attributes but also competitive structures

the lineages of the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach in its most abstract sense an ecosystem is a biotic community encompassing its physical environment and all the interactions possible in the complex of living and nonliving components economics has always been about systems that explain differential output and outcomes however economics has generally ignored the role of entrepreneurship in economic systems just as entrepreneurship studies have largely overlooked the role of systems in explaining the prevalence and performance of entrepreneurship the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has the promise to correct these shortcomings its two dominant lineages are the regional development literature and the strategy literature both lineages share common roots in ecological systems thinking providing fresh insights into the interdependence of actors in a particular community to create new value but studies of both regional development and strategic management have largely ignored the role of entrepreneurs in new value creation in this paper we will outline contributions to the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach and conclude with a promising new line of research to our understanding of the emergence growth and context of start ups that have achieved great impact by developing new platforms

rising food prices and coping strategies household level evidence from afghanistan this paper investigates the impact of rising wheat prices on household food security in afghanistan exploiting a unique nationally representative household survey the authors find evidence of large declines in the real value of per capita food consumption smaller price elasticities with respect to calories than with respect to food consumption suggest that households trade off quality for quantity as they move away from nutrient rich foods such as meat and vegetables toward staple foods the authors work improves upon country level simulation studies by providing estimates of actual household food security during a price shock in one of the world s poorest most food insecure countries

institutional determinants of university spin off quantity and quality a longitudinal multilevel cross country study the creation of spin off firms from universities is seen as an important mechanism for the commercialization of research and hence the overall contribution from universities to technological development and economic growth governments and universities are seeking to develop framework conditions that are conductive to spin off creation the most prevalent of such initiatives are legislative changes at national level and the establishment of technology transfer offices at university level the effectiveness of such initiatives is debated but empirical evidence is limited in this paper we analyze the full population of universities in italy norway and the uk three countries adopting differing approaches to framework conditions to test whether national and university level initiatives have an influence on the number of spin offs created and the quality of these spin offs building on institutional theory and using multilevel analysis we find that changes in the institutional framework conditions at both national and university levels are conductive to the creation of more spin offs but that the increase in quantity is at the expense of the quality of these firms hence the effect of such top down changes in framework conditions on the economic impact from universities seems to be more symbolic than substantive

after the exit acquisitions entrepreneurial recycling and regional economic development mason c m and harrison r t 2006 after the exit acquisitions entrepreneurial recycling and regional economic development regional studies 40 55 73 most studies of the impact of mergers and acquisitions suggest they have a detrimental impact on economic development in peripheral regions over the longer term however such assessments fail to consider the post acquisition behaviour of the cashed out entrepreneurs it is argued here that acquisition triggers a process of entrepreneurial recycling in which the entrepreneurs use their newly acquired wealth allied to the experience they have accumulated to engage in other entrepreneurial activities notably starting new business ventures and investing in other businesses as business angels or venture capitalists case studies of five scottish technology based firms that were acquired by non uk companies illustrate this process when entrepreneurial recycling is taken into account the overall impact of acquisition on regional economic development

the cost of growth small firms and the pricing of bank loans drawing upon data from the 2007 uk survey of sme finance the current analysis is concerned with the extent to which growth firms are discriminated on price in loan markets or more simply the extent to which growth firms pay more for credit given relatively small turndown rates historically vos et al in j bank finance 31 9 2648 2672 2007 higher credit prices may be a more substantial growth constraint than the access to finance issues that have dominated the academic literature to date to this end we observe inter alia that firms who have recorded recent high growth are more likely to pay higher interest rates for the loan they obtained moreover small sized firms who intend to grow through the introduction of new products exhibit a higher probability of paying more for credit than their peers finally acknowledging that banks are not risk funders we discuss the potential policy implications of these findings

unravelling zimbabwe s food insecurity paradox implications for grain market reform in southern africa abstract the organization of zimbabwe s grain market while stimulating production and incomes in high potential smallholder areas since independence has actually contributed to food insecurity among grain deficit households in semi arid areas results of an econometric model indicate that over 100 000 tonnes of expensive commercial maize meal flow annually into rural areas while grain flows out through the state marketing channel this circuitous movement of grain a symptom of poorly functioning intrarural grain trade has effectively reduced incomes among poor rural consumers by as much as 30 the promotion of intrarural trade will require the removal of government restrictions and other critical barriers to private investment in grain trading

sources of food price volatility and child malnutrition in niger and malawi in recent times considerable attention has been paid to the nutritional impact of the sharp hikes in the international food prices which took place in 2007 8 and 2010 11 while understandable this growing focus has perhaps obscured the impact of other variables affecting malnutrition in sub saharan africa i e the long term impact of agricultural policies on food supply and prices large and persistent seasonal variations in food prices and the impact of famines which still affect parts of the continent this paper focuses on the relative impact of these factors on child malnutrition measured by the number of child admissions to feeding centres in malawi and niger two countries which closely represent the situation of other small landlocked subsistence agricultural economies facing severe food security problems our analysis shows that in these countries the drivers of changes in domestic staple prices and child malnutrition are related not only or not primarily to variations of international food prices but also to the impact of agricultural policies on food production and prices in a persistent food price seasonality and in recurrent and poorly managed famines these factors can exert a strong upward pressure on food prices and child malnutrition even during years of falling international prices

implications of higher global food prices for poverty in low income countries in many poor countries the recent increases in prices of staple foods raise the real incomes of those selling food many of whom are relatively poor while hurting net food consumers many of whom are also relatively poor the impacts on poverty will certainly be very diverse but the average impact on poverty depends upon the balance between these two effects and can only be determined by looking at real world data results using household data for ten observations on nine low income countries show that the short run impacts of higher staple food prices on poverty differ considerably by commodity and by country but that poverty increases are much more frequent and larger than poverty reductions the recent large increases in food prices appear likely to raise overall poverty in low income countries substantially

access to finance for innovative smes since the financial crisis in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis there has been increased focus on access to finance for small firms research from before the crisis suggested that it was harder for innovative firms to access finance yet no research has considered the differential effect of the crisis on innovative firms this paper addresses this gap using a dataset of over 10 000 uk sme employers we find that innovative firms are more likely to be turned down for finance than other firms and this worsened significantly in the crisis however regressions controlling for a host of firm characteristics show that the worsening in general credit conditions has been more pronounced for non innovative firms with the exception of absolute credit rationing which still remains more severe for innovative firms the results suggest that there are two issues in the financial system the first is a structural problem which restricts access to finance for innovative firms the second is a cyclical problem has been caused by the financial crisis and has impacted relatively more severely on non innovative firms

agricultural technology productivity and poverty in madagascar summary this paper uses a unique spatially explicit dataset to study the link between agricultural performance and rural poverty in madagascar we show that controlling for geographical and physical characteristics communes that have higher rates of adoption of improved agricultural technologies and consequently higher crop yields enjoy lower food prices higher real wages for unskilled workers and better welfare indicators the empirical evidence strongly favors support for improved agricultural production as an important part of any strategy to reduce the high poverty and food insecurity rates currently prevalent in rural madagascar

retaining winners can policy boost high growth entrepreneurship abstract we analysed the growth impact delivered by a high growth entrepreneurship policy initiative over a six year period using an eight year panel that started two years before the initiative was launched and propensity score matching to control selection bias we found that the initiative had more than doubled the growth rates of treated firms the initiative had delivered a strong impact also on value for money basis in addition to producing the first robust evidence on the growth impact delivered by a high growth entrepreneurship initiative we contribute to public sponsorship theory with the notion of capacity boosting activities to complement previously discussed buffering and bridging activities