The Potential Influence of Local Government Strategies on Regional Business Networks

For a variety of reasons some Australian local governments are seeking to encourage targeted types of business activity within their governance area, often in conjunction with adjacent local governments. This creates networks supportive of some, but not all business activities in the region that is additional to pre-existing business and market networks. The questions considered in this paper are – what kinds of strategies can be adopted by Local Government that will result in the desired outcomes, and what capabilities does local government need. The paper is presented from the viewpoint of one particular Local Government Authority (which we have called LCC), and presents examples of initiatives it is taking It is argued that the intention of LCC is to enhance regional economic capital, knowledge capital and social capital to enable its resident businesses to compete more comprehensively. In comparing the current LCC position with the experiences of other similar regional initiative