 Changing policies for the automotive industry in an 'old' industrial region: an open innovation model for the UK West Midlands?Stewart MacNeill and David Bailey International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2010, vol. 10, issue 2/3, 128-144 Abstract: Automobile manufacture in the UK West Midlands peaked during the 1950s and early 1960s but, with overseas competition, declined thereafter. Successive policies, such as government supported mergers to form the British Motor Corporation in the 1950s, green-field development away from the region in the 1960s, nationalisation of the (then) British Leyland in the 1970s, Japanese FDI in the 1980s and the Rover-centric Accelerate Project in the 1990s have failed to halt the decline. Since early 2000, regional policy has been the responsibility of the Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands. The RDA has moved away from traditional support based on the needs of big companies or 'champions' and adopted an approach centred on a mix of small and large businesses and high level research, and – arguably – an 'open innovation' model. Here, we examine these new policies and their potential to create an innovative and competitive regional environment. Keywords: regional innovation systems; RISs; clusters; open innovation; regional development agencies; automobile industry; industrial policy; UK; United Kingdom; automotive manufacturing; West Midlands. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijatma:v:10:y:2010:i:2/3:p:128-144 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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