Geographies of Growth: Comparing Oxfordshire, a Core High-Tech Region in the UK, with an Emerging High-Tech Region—The Centro of Portugal

Abstract

This chapter reports on a comparative project comparing the evolution of the Oxfordshire high-tech economy with a newer and much smaller high-tech region, the Centro of Portugal. Previous research on Oxfordshire has been mainly qualitative. This new study using quantitative data allows insights into what makes regions distinctive, how the performance of regions with some similar and some different attributes differ, and what might contribute to or inhibit their potential growth trajectories. The conceptual framework for the study is drawn from the ‘regional triple-helix spaces’ (The triple helix: University–industry–government innovation in action. Engineering, Routledge, p. 164, 2008) and the regional innovation systems concept (Environ Plan A 30:1563–1584, 1998). The two regions compared are very different in stages of development. The nature of entrepreneurship and innovation in the two regions is explored as well is responses to the growth of that activity by the local triple-helix actors.