Fumi Kitagawa

Business School
Chair in Regional Economic Development

Contact details

Email: f.kitagawa.1@bham.ac.uk

Professor Fumi Kitagawa holds Chair in Regional Economic Development at City Region Economic and Development Institute (City-REDI), Birmingham, Business School, University of Birmingham in the UK. She has conducted research related to regional innovation, entrepreneurship policies, and higher education policy and regional development, across a variety of local, regional, national and international contexts. She has expertise on the role of universities in innovation and entrepreneurial processes.

Qualifications

Fellow of Regional Studies Association (FeRSA)
Fellow of Higher Education Academy
MBA in Higher Education Management in 2012
PhD in Urban and Regional Studies in 2004

Biography

Fumi joined University of Birmingham as Chair in Regional Economic Development in April 2023. Based at City-REDI, Birmingham Business School.

She has conducted research related to regional innovation, entrepreneurship policies, regional development and higher education policy, particularly in the UK, Japan and Sweden.
Fumi worked in the higher education sector over the last 15 years internationally, as a researcher, and as a lecturer. She has worked at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, and Bristol in the UK; and Lund University in Sweden; and spent some time at the European University Institute (EUI) in Italy, previously. She has worked as a policy researcher in the government higher education research institute in Japan.

Fumi was awarded PhD in Urban and Regional Studies (University of Birmingham), then MBA in Higher Education Management (Institute of Education, University of London). She is qualified as a Higher Education Academy Fellow (2014). She is a Fellow of Regional Studies Association (FeRSA).

Research

Fumi Kitagawa joined City-REDI in April 2023, as Chair in Regional Economic Development. She has conducted research related to regional innovation and entrepreneurship policies; higher education policy and regional development. Recent research projects include: future visioning of inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems; forms of PhD students’ entrepreneurship; evaluation of cluster policy and geography of R&D collaboration. She has expertise on the role of universities in innovation and entrepreneurial processes, knowledge exchange and third mission, and governance of local and regional development in different national contexts (e.g. UK, Japan, Sweden). Fumi has published in peer-reviewed journals: e.g. Regional Studies, Studies in Higher Education, Technovation, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.

Publications

Kitagawa, F., and Vidmar, M. (2022) Strategic intelligence for the future of places: enabling inclusive economic growth through the Opportunity Areas Analysis Tool, Regional Studies, Forthcoming special issue: Re-imagining the future- city foresight and visioning https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2045267

Kitagawa, F., Marzorcci, C., Sanchez-Barrioluengo, M. and Uyarra, E. (2022) Anchoring talent to regions: Graduate retention dynamics through employment and entrepreneurship, Regional Studies, 56 (6): 1001-1014. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1904136

Prokop, D and Kitagawa, F. (2022) Shareholder networks of university spinoff companies: Firm development and regional characteristics, Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2122662

Candi, M and Kitagawa, F. (2022) Performance Implications of Business Model Centrality over Technology-based Firms’ Life Courses, Technovation. doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2022.102626

Spigel, B., Kitagawa, F. and Mason, C (2020) A manifesto for researching entrepreneurial ecosystems. Local Economy, 35(5) 482-495.

Sanchez-Barrioluengo, M, Uyarra, E & Kitagawa, F (2019) Understanding the evolution of the entrepreneurial university: the case of English Higher Education Institutions. Higher Education Quarterly, 73(4) 469-495.

Marzorcci, C., Kitagawa. F and Sanchez-Barrioluengo, M (2019) Evolving missions and university entrepreneurship: academic spin-offs and graduate start-ups in the entrepreneurial society, Journal of Technology Transfer, 44 (1) 167–188.

Okamuro, H, Nishimura, J & Kitagawa, F. (2019) Multilevel policy governance and territorial adaptability: Evidence from Japanese SME innovation programmes, Regional Studies 53(6) 803-814. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2018.1500687

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