Gazelles and Regional Development: Growth Trajectories
Determinants and Spatial Implications
Stirling Management Centre
University of Stirling
Scotland
20th - 21st April, 2010
The Scottish Branch of Regional Studies Association wishes to invite you
to an important international conference to be held on the theme of high
growth firms and regional economic development. The conference will be
held at Stirling Management Centre, University of Stirling on 20th/21st
of April 2010. The conference will run from lpm on Tuesday 20th April
until 4pm on Wednesday 21st of April. An informal conference dinner
will take place on Tuesday 20th of April.
There has been a recent upsurge of academic and public policy interest
in the role of high growth firms across advanced industrial economies.
There seems to be an emerging consensus that high growth firms account
for the vast majority of new employment and output growth within
advanced industrial economies. Also known as gazelles, these firms are
often able to continue growing during recessions. These positive growth
traits and characteristics clearly make such firms extremely desirable
from a public policy perspective. This conference aims to explore high
growth firms from a multi-disciplinary perspective in order to fully
explore the multi-faceted nature of their growth trajectories, growth
determinants and spatial manifestations.
The conference will include papers of a theoretical, conceptual,
empirical and policy oriented nature. The conference will be highly
international in focus and will include papers on high growth firms in
Canada, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, UK,
Scotland and Ireland. It is our intention to produce a Special Volume
of a refereed journal comprising a selection of the best papers
presented at the conference.
The papers will broadly focus on the following thematic issues:
• Classifications of corporate growth and growth discontinuities
• Key characteristics of high growth firms (entry modes, founder
background, corporate strategy, skills utilisation, capital structure
and so on)
• The spatial distribution of high growth firms
• Growth differences between firms by mode of entry (university
spin-offs, corporate spin-outs, corporate venture, new start-up and so on)
• High growth firms and exit – failure and acquisition
• The role of innovation in shaping high growth firms
• The financing of high growth firms
• High growth firms and clusters
• The role of high growth firms in regional development
• The role of public policy in developing and promoting high growth firms
• International comparisons of high growth firms
A detailed agenda will be issued to all delegates once they have
registered for the conference.
Conference Venue
The conference is being held at Stirling Management Centre at Stirling
University. The campus at Stirling University is one of the most scenic
locations in Scotland. For more information please see the following
websites:
www.smc.stir.ac.uk
www.external.stir.ac.uk
Conference Accommodation
Accommodation is also available at the conference venue within Stirling
Management Centre. The conference organisers have arranged a special
rate of £75 B&B at Stirling Management Centre. This is separate from
the conference fee and is payable by the participants. Those wishing to
stay overnight on the 20th April at the Stirling Management Centre
please contact this number directly: + 44(0)1786 451712
Conference Registration Details
If you wish to attend the conference, participants must complete the
registration form on the following page. Questions concerning
conference registration should be directed to the conference
administrator below:
Mrs Jean Finn
Conference Administrator
Business School
University of the West of Scotland
Paisley
PA1 2BE
+44 (0)141-848-3933 (tel)
+44 (0)141-848-3395 (fax)
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Conference Organisation
If you have any general queries concerning the conference please get in
touch with one of the conference organisers:
Dr Ross Brown
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Professor Colin Mason
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Professor Mike Danson
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