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One may have expected that gap to close rapidly. Even today, however, only around four-fifths of small firms have a website. E-commerce is another technology that has arguably been surprisingly slow to propagate through the UK economy. In 2016, over 80% of UK individuals ordered goods or services online, more than any other OECD country. One may have expected that to have been mirrored by a large share of UK businesses selling online. In practice, the UK is only marginally above the OECD average. And between 2009 and 2016, the share of UK businesses making e-commerce sales increased by only 6pp, from 17% to 23%. 71  Swinney (2018), Giles (2018). Schneider (2018). Haldane (2017), Jacobs et al (2017), Swinney (2018), for instance. 74 OECD data. 72 73  20  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  20  If the story, then, is one of diffusion dynamics being more sluggish in the UK than elsewhere, what might be done to improve matters? Institutions, and within that universities, may well have a role to play. At present, a relatively small sub-set of the UK’s universities operate as innovation hubs. They conduct world-leading research using world-leading researchers. And, in an increasing number of cases, they are doing so in tandem with businesses in spin-off science parks, acting as incubators of innovation.