Embedded Enterprise and Social Capital

Simon Leonard is an economic, urban and social human geographer, completing his PhD studies at the London School of Economics and working in research and academic employment at University College London, the Greater London Council Economic Policy Group and the London Research Centre. Between 1992 and 2016 he was a lecturer in the former Department of Geography at the University of Portsmouth, and Head of Department for the last nine years of that period. Michael Taylor was one of the world’s foremost Economic Geographers and his work helped shape the study of manufacturing industries, local economic development and geographical approaches to theorising firms in place and across space. His research both shaped academic debate and informed policy development in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. He published over 150 papers and book chapters and 15 books. He held the position of Chair of the IGU Commission on “The Dynamics of Economic Space” from 2008. He retired from the Chair of Human Geography at the University of Birmingham in 2011 and was awarded the position of Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia until the time of his death in 2021. Mike left behind a highly influential legacy of research and publications.

• Contents: Approaching embeddedness, Michael Taylor and Simon Leonard; Embeddedness and innovation, Ron Boschma, Jan Lambooy and Veronique Schutjens; Rethinking institutions and embeddedness in a third world context, Giles Mohan; Supply chains, embeddedness and the restructuring of Argentina’s tanning industry, Kjersti Wølneberg; Going places? Reflections on embedding and disembedding in agriculture and horticulture under neoliberalism: the example of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, David Hayward, Christina Stringer and Richard Le Heron; Weakening ties: the embeddedness of small UK electronics firms, Sara Openshaw and Michael Taylor; Enterprise embeddedness and industrial innovation in Spain: an overview, Montserrat Pallares-Barbera; Local embeddedness in global financial services: Australian evidence in ’the end of geography’, Pierre Agnes; Local embeddedness and service firms: evidence from Southern England, Paul Search and Michael Taylor; Embedded project-production in magazine publishing: a case of self-exploitation?, Carol Ekinsmyth; Local embeddedness, ’institutional thickness’ and the state regulation of local labour markets, Simon Leonard; Diasporic embeddedness and Asian women entrepreneurs in the UK, Irene Hardill, Parvati Raghuram and Adam Strange; Over- and Under-embeddedness: failures in developing mixed embeddedness among Israeli entrepreneurs, Michael Sofer and Izhak Schnell; Enterprise, embeddedness and exclusion: business relationships in a small island developing economy, Michael Taylor; The local embeddedness of firms in Turkish industrial districts: the changing roles of networks in local development, Ayda Eraydin; Understanding embeddedness, Michael Taylor and Simon Leonard; Index. Name Index.

’This edited volume presents a unique overview of theoretical and empirical contributions of some of the hotbeds of thinking in economic geography since the mid 1980s, particularly that related to the issue of the social embeddedness of economic action. Different views of this conception are discussed and a wealth of empirical studies presented which draw upon different sectoral, cultural and regional contexts. The selection of articles is especially constructive for it also allows the reader to examine various views of the embeddedness concept from different countries. This book is a valuable contribution to current thinking in economic geography and will help bridge the gap towards the applicability of embeddedness in empirical studies.’ Professor Harald Bathelt, Institute of Economic Geography, University of Frankfurt, Germany 'This volume includes valuable explorations of its social dimensions; economic geographers have largely neglected these. Case studies extending well beyond North America and Europe provide a sound basis for questioning current assumptions about the veracity of public policy initiatives based on a rather narrow understanding of embeddedness.' Professor P W Daniels, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham 'For anyone interested in embeddedness, this book is must reading. The book succeeds in drawing out the complexity of the concept and its rich empairical illustrations help to illustrate the conceptual arguments.' Journal of Rural Cooperation