Research project
A strategic framework for delivering West Yorkshire International Trade Strategy
- Start date: 1 October 2023
- End date: 31 July 2024
- Principal investigator: Dr Emma Liu
- Co-investigators: Professor Frank McDonald, Professor Yingqi (Annie) Wei, Dr Giles Blackburne
Description
This project continues collaboration with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to deliver its International Trade Strategy 2022–2026.
West Yorkshire has been identified as having a low proportion of exports compared to some other comparable UK regions. Results from the earlier project highlighted the complexity of the current network of organisations providing export trade promotion and support to companies in the region. Companies also find it difficult to navigate the system.
By gathering and processing data from existing agents involved in export promotion and support, the project seeks to develop a framework that would help guide companies to organisations that can provide the information and support they need. The main use of the framework would be to help deliver more effective policy for export promotion and support.
The project is funded by the Research England Policy Support Fund.
Research overview
The aim of this research is to identify the network of key export promotion and support organisations in the current system and understand how they interact with each other, or operate alone, to provide support and services to local companies.
We will interview key players within the network to understand not only the scope and depth of their services, but also their perspectives on how well the overall network of organisations in the region is working - strengths, weaknesses, connectivity, gaps etc. - in providing export promotion and support.
An outcome of this project will be a framework that can be used to assess how this region’s network might be developed or improved to address issues such as companies with low motivation to export, lack of awareness of the capabilities required to export, lack of knowledge about where to go for help, along with low participation in exporting in different parts of the region.
The ultimate objective is to improve the effectiveness of export promotion and support policy thereby helping to enhance economic wellbeing across all of the region.