Innovation system and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship: United Kingdom

The goal of this deliverable is to explore the nature of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) as a property of an innovation system covering national and sectoral levels in the UK. Following the guidelines previously developed in Deliverable 2.2.1 " Innovation systems and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship: Analytical framework and guidelines for case study research " we investigate the interplay between national innovation systems and KIE by focusing first on the national level and then on two selected sectors: machine tools, and computer and related activities. Our main research question is to what extent do market, technological and institutional opportunities constrain or shape the knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship in the UK. We show that the UK's main strength lies in financing entrepreneurial ventures, innovation and knowledge-intensive services; whereas her main weaknesses are in knowledge generation and diffusion, competence building and consequently in the creation of new technology and innovations. This applies to the national level as well as the sectoral levels.