The entrepreneur who gave Scotland’s space industry a boost

When Craig Clark founded Clyde Space in Glasgow in 2005, he saw a business opportunity in small satellites. A new study shows how his initiative also helped bring together companies, universities, and public sector organizations to develop a burgeoning Scottish space industry.

Scotland did not lack space expertise. The University of Dundee had long been involved in space-related research, and as early as 2002, STAR-Dundee had emerged from research conducted at the university. However, a cohesive commercial space industry did not yet exist.

Clark had been working at Surrey Satellites in England when he saw an opportunity to build smaller satellites more quickly and at a lower cost. Through Clyde Space in Glasgow, he began to combine that business idea with the expertise that already existed in the region.

At the same time, interest in the space sector grew. An international space congress in Glasgow in 2008 and the formation of the UK Space Agency in 2010 created new opportunities. Clark was not alone in recognizing them, but researchers highlight how he used them to drive development in Scotland.

A breakthrough came in 2014. Clark helped persuade the UK Space Agency to support UKube-1, a satellite project involving Clyde Space and the University of Strathclyde, among others. When the satellite was launched in 2014, Scottish space expertise gained significantly greater visibility.

More were brought in

The next step wasn’t just about Clyde Space. Clark also worked to bring the American space company Spire to Glasgow. Spire was an important client, but its arrival also meant that yet another player became part of the growing ecosystem. Scottish development agencies provided support for the move.

This is the type of role that researchers describe using the term “anchor entrepreneur”: an entrepreneur who not only builds their own company but also helps forge relationships and attract resources that others can use.

Over time, this development became less dependent on individual initiatives. In 2016, the economic potential of the space industry received clearer formal recognition in a Scottish industrial strategy. A special leadership council was formed, with Clark as its first chair, and more public and private actors began coordinating their efforts.

As more players entered the scene, the driving force behind the development also changed. What had begun as individual initiatives gradually became more organized and collective.

Not a story of a lone hero

The researchers want to caution against overly simplistic hero narratives and are careful not to portray Clark as the sole founder of the Scottish space industry. Previous university expertise, other entrepreneurs, British funding, and public organizations were also important.

The study should therefore not be interpreted as a blueprint for how other regions can develop new industries. It is based on a qualitative case study of a region in which the researchers examined a comprehensive body of documentation and conducted approximately 30 interviews with individuals from the business community, the public sector, and academia.

The study focuses on the interaction between the entrepreneur and the environment in which the company emerges. An entrepreneur can have an impact far beyond their own company by linking a business idea to existing expertise, resources, and institutions. As more actors join in, the dynamics of who drives development forward also change.

More about the article and the authors
The article Anchor Entrepreneurs as Microfoundational Agents of Regional Industry Emergence: The Case of Scotland’s Space Industry (free to download) has been published in the academic journal Regional Studies.

The authors are Samantha Archard, Felicia M. Fai, Mariachiara Barzotto, and Philip R. Tomlinson, all at the University of Bath, United Kingdom.