Tim Vorley
Biographic Data
| ID | 246853 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tim Vorley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tim |
| FAMILY NAME | Vorley |
| SIGNATURE | VORLEY T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3889-245X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Reimagining mechanisms of economic impact for knowledge valorisation of the arts, humanities & social science
Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of 105 Impact Case Studies from the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, this paper challenges the prevailing narrative that knowledge valorisation should be predominantly an exercise rooted in commercialisation. We do this by observing the multi-dynamic contributions of arts, humanities and social science (AHSS) research, which contrasts the stereotype in which AHSS disciplines primarily deliver social im…
Sustainable innovation policy: Examining the discourse of UK innovation policy
Innovation can be a key mechanism to address some of society's greatest challenges, or it can contribute to them. There is extensive conceptual academic literature focused on how policy can be used to create more positive societal and environmental impacts through innovation, however, little empirical evidence exists to understand to what extent innovation policy in particular embeds the principles of social and environmental sustainability into …
Technological trajectories as an outcome of the structure-agency interplay at the national level: Insights from emerging varieties of AI
Digital transformation in the world city networks’ advanced producer services complex: A technology space analysis
The Advanced Producer Services (APS) sector, long considered to be the vanguard of the knowledge economy and world-city formation, is undergoing a digital transformation. Digital transformation entails an increased engagement with digital technologies in the operation, product offerings and strategies of APS firms, with potentially transformative implications. Such digitization processes are well-established in the morphing of finance into FinTec…
Rethinking the digital transformation in knowledge-intensive services: A technology space analysis
The world is in the midst of a digital transformation. An intensified prevalence and use of digital technologies is fundamentally changing organizations and economies. However, the notion of 'digital transformation' is both theoretically and empirically underspecified. This paper rethinks the digital transformation narrative theoretically by embedding the concept in concurrent debates about technological revolutions and neo-Schumpeterian innovati…
Mapping SME productivity research: A systematic review of empirical evidence and future research agenda
The ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance: Regional identity and contested city-region-building in the UK
With the structuring of subnational governance driven primarily by economic goals, an issue that has become increasingly overlooked is that of identity. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders from the Sheffield City Region, the paper builds on Jones and Woods’ framework of 2013 of ‘material’ and ‘imagined’ coherence, demonstrating the ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance in the context of rescaling from regions to city-region…
Productivity and the Pandemic: Challenges and Insights from Covid-19
The role of system-building agency in regional path creation: Insights from the emergence of artificial intelligence in Montreal
The emergence of new industries that are not closely related to existing regional paths remains an underexplained process in evolutionary economic geography. This paper responds to this gap through a case study of a maturing ecosystem of activity related to artificial intelligence in Montreal, Canada. Conceptually it brings together recent thinking in economic geography about agency in path development with complementary concepts from the literat…
Productivity and the Pandemic: Challenges and Insights from Covid-19
Resilient Research in the Field: Insights and Lessons From Adapting Qualitative Research Projects During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented social distancing measures, restricting social interaction and with it the possibility for conducting face-to-face qualitative research. This paper provides lessons from a series of qualitative research projects that were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure their continuation and completion. By reflecting on our experiences and discussing the opportunities …
Making Sense of Industrial Decline: How Legacies of the Past Influence the Development of Entrepreneurship Cultures in Formerly Industrialized Places
This paper explores how local communities in formerly industrialized places make sense of industrial decline and how the historical experience of industrialism has influenced the subsequent development of local entrepreneurship cultures. Based on a study with entrepreneurs and policymakers in Doncaster, a post-industrial English town in South Yorkshire, the paper demonstrates how legacies of the past persist through local informal institutions an…
Artificial intelligence in the legal sector: Pressures and challenges of transformation
Recent technological developments in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to disrupt the very foundations of how legal work is practised and delivered. Yet how they challenge current business models, where they encounter resistance and how the benefits of AI can be realised remain unexplored. Drawing on interviews with professionals in the UK legal services sector, the article highlights how technological and market pressures combi…
Localism is an illusion (of power): The multi-scalar challenge of UK enterprise policy-making
This paper explores to what extent the new localism has effectively empowered local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and local communities to deliver localized, place-based enterprise policy at the subnational level. It identifies externally imposed constraints on local enterprise policy-making that have seen this reoriented towards the support of high-growth potential businesses. However, the scope and focus of enterprise policy at the LEP level c…
Entrepreneurship and local economic resilience: The impact of institutional hysteresis in peripheral places
This article examines how the legacies of the past in peripheral post-industrial places serve to shape current and future entrepreneurial activity, and with it local economic resilience. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with key regional stakeholders, the article reveals how peripheral post-industrial places are constrained by their histories. This is found to be manifest in different ways, such as low aspirations, generational unemploy…
The role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions
This paper examines the role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions. Extant research on resilience has examined ‘economic’ factors. This paper adds to the academic discourse by considering how effective leadership shapes economic development within sub-national economies. Through a case study of the Sheffield City Region (SCR), UK, the paper considers the role of civic leadership in enabling Local Enterprise Partners…
Creating and sustaining a model of community-based enterprise learning: A Participatory Case Study of Ready Hubs
Entrepreneurship education has increased in prominence over the past decade yet somewhat paradoxically remains outside the statutory school curriculum in many places, including the UK. Despite this, there has been a growing movement to embed enterprise education widely, including supporting enterprise through community-based learning. This article is the output from a participatory action research case study which analyzes the implementation of c…
Invisible Creativity? Highlighting the Hidden Impact of Freelancing in London's Creative Industries
The creative industries have been identified as a key sector for the UK's economic recovery. Despite the intense focus, however, the working practices of their labour force remain largely enigmatic to public policy. Particularly, freelancers, who make up a large proportion of labour within the creative industries, remain largely under-researched. This paper seeks to highlight the importance of freelancers to the creative industries through a case…
My Networking Is Not Working! Conceptualizing the Latent and Dysfunctional Dimensions of the Network Paradigm
Networks have become a major analytical concept in economic geography and have served to extend both empirical and theoretical research agendas. However, much of the literature on networks is characterized asassociative, considering them only as cumulative constructs through the constant enrollment of additional actors. Through the lens of social capital and a discussion of the limitations of the networking paradigm in economic geography, this ar…
From policy to practice: Engaging and embedding the third mission in contemporary universities
Purpose Over the past 20 years public policy has sought to promote and formalise the socio‐economic role of universities under the auspices of the so called “third mission”. The purpose of this paper is to consider how the third mission relates to, and has the capacity to reinforce the core missions of teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach By highlighting the key limitations of contemporary debate the paper bridges the conceptual mod…
Realizing capabilities—academic creativity and the creative industries
Higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are in an era of change. In England universities have been challenged to realize their potential their potential under guise of the so called ‘Third Mission’, which has emphasised the commercialization and technology transfer of academic research. Much of the existing literature is devoted to the scientific dimension of the Third Mission, with little if any recognition as to the non-scientific creati…
The Geographic Cluster: A Historical Review
The notion of the cluster has become a highly interdisciplinary project, although it remains intrinsic to human and more specifically economic geography as a discipline. This article reviews the concept of the cluster from its origin in the work of Alfred Marshall and the industrial district, and how it has come to inform much subsequent thinking. Despite the strong foundation of Marshall's work, the contemporary cluster has become repopularised …
The impact of European integration on regional structural change and cohesion * Christiane Krieger-Boden, Edgar Morgenroth and George Petrakos
This edited collection on European integration is the latest addition to the Routledge Studies in the European Economy Series, and is truly pan-European in terms of its contributors. Promoting economic and social cohesion is a priority of the European Union, and the book illuminates the different challenges faced by Member States. In light of the integration that continues to occur, this book offers an interesting reflection as to the current sta…
Introduction to geographical economies of creativity, enterprise and the creative industries
This special issue brings together creativity and enterprise through the geographies of the creative industries. In recent years the focus of academic debate has privileged business and corporate economies, and so this issue seeks to contribute both empirically and theoretically to the burgeoning literature of creative industries. Economic geography offers a rich domain through which to engage with these debates, exploring the nuances of creativi…
Geography of Power: Making Global Economic Policy ‐ by Richard Peet
Resilient Research in the Field: Insights and Lessons From Adapting Qualitative Research Projects During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented social distancing measures, restricting social interaction and with it the possibility for conducting face-to-face qualitative research. This paper provides lessons from a series of qualitative research projects that were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure their continuation and completion. By reflecting on our experiences and discussing the opportunities …
The role of system-building agency in regional path creation: Insights from the emergence of artificial intelligence in Montreal
The emergence of new industries that are not closely related to existing regional paths remains an underexplained process in evolutionary economic geography. This paper responds to this gap through a case study of a maturing ecosystem of activity related to artificial intelligence in Montreal, Canada. Conceptually it brings together recent thinking in economic geography about agency in path development with complementary concepts from the literat…
My Networking Is Not Working! Conceptualizing the Latent and Dysfunctional Dimensions of the Network Paradigm
Networks have become a major analytical concept in economic geography and have served to extend both empirical and theoretical research agendas. However, much of the literature on networks is characterized asassociative, considering them only as cumulative constructs through the constant enrollment of additional actors. Through the lens of social capital and a discussion of the limitations of the networking paradigm in economic geography, this ar…
Technological trajectories as an outcome of the structure-agency interplay at the national level: Insights from emerging varieties of AI
The ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance: Regional identity and contested city-region-building in the UK
With the structuring of subnational governance driven primarily by economic goals, an issue that has become increasingly overlooked is that of identity. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders from the Sheffield City Region, the paper builds on Jones and Woods’ framework of 2013 of ‘material’ and ‘imagined’ coherence, demonstrating the ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance in the context of rescaling from regions to city-region…
Artificial intelligence in the legal sector: Pressures and challenges of transformation
Recent technological developments in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to disrupt the very foundations of how legal work is practised and delivered. Yet how they challenge current business models, where they encounter resistance and how the benefits of AI can be realised remain unexplored. Drawing on interviews with professionals in the UK legal services sector, the article highlights how technological and market pressures combi…
Digital transformation in the world city networks’ advanced producer services complex: A technology space analysis
The Advanced Producer Services (APS) sector, long considered to be the vanguard of the knowledge economy and world-city formation, is undergoing a digital transformation. Digital transformation entails an increased engagement with digital technologies in the operation, product offerings and strategies of APS firms, with potentially transformative implications. Such digitization processes are well-established in the morphing of finance into FinTec…
Creating and sustaining a model of community-based enterprise learning: A Participatory Case Study of Ready Hubs
Entrepreneurship education has increased in prominence over the past decade yet somewhat paradoxically remains outside the statutory school curriculum in many places, including the UK. Despite this, there has been a growing movement to embed enterprise education widely, including supporting enterprise through community-based learning. This article is the output from a participatory action research case study which analyzes the implementation of c…
Introduction to geographical economies of creativity, enterprise and the creative industries
This special issue brings together creativity and enterprise through the geographies of the creative industries. In recent years the focus of academic debate has privileged business and corporate economies, and so this issue seeks to contribute both empirically and theoretically to the burgeoning literature of creative industries. Economic geography offers a rich domain through which to engage with these debates, exploring the nuances of creativi…
From policy to practice: Engaging and embedding the third mission in contemporary universities
Purpose Over the past 20 years public policy has sought to promote and formalise the socio‐economic role of universities under the auspices of the so called “third mission”. The purpose of this paper is to consider how the third mission relates to, and has the capacity to reinforce the core missions of teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach By highlighting the key limitations of contemporary debate the paper bridges the conceptual mod…
Localism is an illusion (of power): The multi-scalar challenge of UK enterprise policy-making
This paper explores to what extent the new localism has effectively empowered local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and local communities to deliver localized, place-based enterprise policy at the subnational level. It identifies externally imposed constraints on local enterprise policy-making that have seen this reoriented towards the support of high-growth potential businesses. However, the scope and focus of enterprise policy at the LEP level c…
The role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions
This paper examines the role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions. Extant research on resilience has examined ‘economic’ factors. This paper adds to the academic discourse by considering how effective leadership shapes economic development within sub-national economies. Through a case study of the Sheffield City Region (SCR), UK, the paper considers the role of civic leadership in enabling Local Enterprise Partners…
The Geographic Cluster: A Historical Review
The notion of the cluster has become a highly interdisciplinary project, although it remains intrinsic to human and more specifically economic geography as a discipline. This article reviews the concept of the cluster from its origin in the work of Alfred Marshall and the industrial district, and how it has come to inform much subsequent thinking. Despite the strong foundation of Marshall's work, the contemporary cluster has become repopularised …
The impact of European integration on regional structural change and cohesion * Christiane Krieger-Boden, Edgar Morgenroth and George Petrakos
This edited collection on European integration is the latest addition to the Routledge Studies in the European Economy Series, and is truly pan-European in terms of its contributors. Promoting economic and social cohesion is a priority of the European Union, and the book illuminates the different challenges faced by Member States. In light of the integration that continues to occur, this book offers an interesting reflection as to the current sta…
Introduction to geographical economies of creativity, enterprise and the creative industries
This special issue brings together creativity and enterprise through the geographies of the creative industries. In recent years the focus of academic debate has privileged business and corporate economies, and so this issue seeks to contribute both empirically and theoretically to the burgeoning literature of creative industries. Economic geography offers a rich domain through which to engage with these debates, exploring the nuances of creativi…
Geography of Power: Making Global Economic Policy ‐ by Richard Peet
Realizing capabilities—academic creativity and the creative industries
Higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide are in an era of change. In England universities have been challenged to realize their potential their potential under guise of the so called ‘Third Mission’, which has emphasised the commercialization and technology transfer of academic research. Much of the existing literature is devoted to the scientific dimension of the Third Mission, with little if any recognition as to the non-scientific creati…
From policy to practice: Engaging and embedding the third mission in contemporary universities
Purpose Over the past 20 years public policy has sought to promote and formalise the socio‐economic role of universities under the auspices of the so called “third mission”. The purpose of this paper is to consider how the third mission relates to, and has the capacity to reinforce the core missions of teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach By highlighting the key limitations of contemporary debate the paper bridges the conceptual mod…
My Networking Is Not Working! Conceptualizing the Latent and Dysfunctional Dimensions of the Network Paradigm
Networks have become a major analytical concept in economic geography and have served to extend both empirical and theoretical research agendas. However, much of the literature on networks is characterized asassociative, considering them only as cumulative constructs through the constant enrollment of additional actors. Through the lens of social capital and a discussion of the limitations of the networking paradigm in economic geography, this ar…
Invisible Creativity? Highlighting the Hidden Impact of Freelancing in London's Creative Industries
The creative industries have been identified as a key sector for the UK's economic recovery. Despite the intense focus, however, the working practices of their labour force remain largely enigmatic to public policy. Particularly, freelancers, who make up a large proportion of labour within the creative industries, remain largely under-researched. This paper seeks to highlight the importance of freelancers to the creative industries through a case…
Creating and sustaining a model of community-based enterprise learning: A Participatory Case Study of Ready Hubs
Entrepreneurship education has increased in prominence over the past decade yet somewhat paradoxically remains outside the statutory school curriculum in many places, including the UK. Despite this, there has been a growing movement to embed enterprise education widely, including supporting enterprise through community-based learning. This article is the output from a participatory action research case study which analyzes the implementation of c…
The role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions
This paper examines the role of civic leadership in fostering economic resilience in City Regions. Extant research on resilience has examined ‘economic’ factors. This paper adds to the academic discourse by considering how effective leadership shapes economic development within sub-national economies. Through a case study of the Sheffield City Region (SCR), UK, the paper considers the role of civic leadership in enabling Local Enterprise Partners…
Entrepreneurship and local economic resilience: The impact of institutional hysteresis in peripheral places
This article examines how the legacies of the past in peripheral post-industrial places serve to shape current and future entrepreneurial activity, and with it local economic resilience. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with key regional stakeholders, the article reveals how peripheral post-industrial places are constrained by their histories. This is found to be manifest in different ways, such as low aspirations, generational unemploy…
Localism is an illusion (of power): The multi-scalar challenge of UK enterprise policy-making
This paper explores to what extent the new localism has effectively empowered local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and local communities to deliver localized, place-based enterprise policy at the subnational level. It identifies externally imposed constraints on local enterprise policy-making that have seen this reoriented towards the support of high-growth potential businesses. However, the scope and focus of enterprise policy at the LEP level c…
Making Sense of Industrial Decline: How Legacies of the Past Influence the Development of Entrepreneurship Cultures in Formerly Industrialized Places
This paper explores how local communities in formerly industrialized places make sense of industrial decline and how the historical experience of industrialism has influenced the subsequent development of local entrepreneurship cultures. Based on a study with entrepreneurs and policymakers in Doncaster, a post-industrial English town in South Yorkshire, the paper demonstrates how legacies of the past persist through local informal institutions an…
Artificial intelligence in the legal sector: Pressures and challenges of transformation
Recent technological developments in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to disrupt the very foundations of how legal work is practised and delivered. Yet how they challenge current business models, where they encounter resistance and how the benefits of AI can be realised remain unexplored. Drawing on interviews with professionals in the UK legal services sector, the article highlights how technological and market pressures combi…
Productivity and the Pandemic: Challenges and Insights from Covid-19
The role of system-building agency in regional path creation: Insights from the emergence of artificial intelligence in Montreal
The emergence of new industries that are not closely related to existing regional paths remains an underexplained process in evolutionary economic geography. This paper responds to this gap through a case study of a maturing ecosystem of activity related to artificial intelligence in Montreal, Canada. Conceptually it brings together recent thinking in economic geography about agency in path development with complementary concepts from the literat…
Productivity and the Pandemic: Challenges and Insights from Covid-19
Resilient Research in the Field: Insights and Lessons From Adapting Qualitative Research Projects During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the implementation of unprecedented social distancing measures, restricting social interaction and with it the possibility for conducting face-to-face qualitative research. This paper provides lessons from a series of qualitative research projects that were adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure their continuation and completion. By reflecting on our experiences and discussing the opportunities …
Rethinking the digital transformation in knowledge-intensive services: A technology space analysis
The world is in the midst of a digital transformation. An intensified prevalence and use of digital technologies is fundamentally changing organizations and economies. However, the notion of 'digital transformation' is both theoretically and empirically underspecified. This paper rethinks the digital transformation narrative theoretically by embedding the concept in concurrent debates about technological revolutions and neo-Schumpeterian innovati…
Mapping SME productivity research: A systematic review of empirical evidence and future research agenda
The ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance: Regional identity and contested city-region-building in the UK
With the structuring of subnational governance driven primarily by economic goals, an issue that has become increasingly overlooked is that of identity. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders from the Sheffield City Region, the paper builds on Jones and Woods’ framework of 2013 of ‘material’ and ‘imagined’ coherence, demonstrating the ‘imaginary’ challenge of remaking subnational governance in the context of rescaling from regions to city-region…
Sustainable innovation policy: Examining the discourse of UK innovation policy
Innovation can be a key mechanism to address some of society's greatest challenges, or it can contribute to them. There is extensive conceptual academic literature focused on how policy can be used to create more positive societal and environmental impacts through innovation, however, little empirical evidence exists to understand to what extent innovation policy in particular embeds the principles of social and environmental sustainability into …
Technological trajectories as an outcome of the structure-agency interplay at the national level: Insights from emerging varieties of AI
Digital transformation in the world city networks’ advanced producer services complex: A technology space analysis
The Advanced Producer Services (APS) sector, long considered to be the vanguard of the knowledge economy and world-city formation, is undergoing a digital transformation. Digital transformation entails an increased engagement with digital technologies in the operation, product offerings and strategies of APS firms, with potentially transformative implications. Such digitization processes are well-established in the morphing of finance into FinTec…
Reimagining mechanisms of economic impact for knowledge valorisation of the arts, humanities & social science
Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of 105 Impact Case Studies from the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, this paper challenges the prevailing narrative that knowledge valorisation should be predominantly an exercise rooted in commercialisation. We do this by observing the multi-dynamic contributions of arts, humanities and social science (AHSS) research, which contrasts the stereotype in which AHSS disciplines primarily deliver social im…
Sociology (19 works) · Economics (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Business (10 works) · Economic geography (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Social science (7 works) · Cultural Industries and Urban Development (6 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (6 works)