ABSTRACT
This chapter empirically assesses the role of Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) as cultivators and catalysts of inter-firm, or business, networks in their respective localities. It focuses on the awareness among TECs of inter-firm networks, and the effectiveness of the instruments used by TECs to generate such networks. The chapter evaluates: the consequential outputs of, and barriers to, networking; the level of involvement encountered; and existing regional disparities. It discusses the results of a postal survey of TECs in England and Wales undertaken in 1996–a time where they gained a degree of relative stability and establishment. The enthusiasm of firms to the concept of becoming involved in TEC established inter-firm networks was also fairly poor, with more than two-thirds of TECs reporting low receptiveness amongst companies. It is reasonable to assume that certain inter-firm networks have non-firm institutional partners and this was confirmed by the fact that TECs indicated a number of active institutional partners.
