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Results from the largest survey of academics
22,000 academics speak ...
On 20th October 2009 the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC) launched the results of the latest CBR research on how British academics interact with businesses and other sectors of the economy at NESTA. The results are from the largest survey of academics undertaken in the UK - with over 20,000 respondents.
The research reveals
- that although there is significant interaction between the science base and business, there are also significant 'hidden' interactions encompassing a range of other academic disciplines.
- that links between business and academia are not just about 'technology transfer' but involve a broader process that is best encapsulated as 'knowledge exchange'.
- that very few academics are involved with creating spin-outs, licenses or patents, instead the most frequent forms of knowledge exchange involve informal advice, joint publications, consultancy and a wide range of people based activities (such as involvement in networks and employee training).
- that there are significant interactions involving the third and public sectors.
 The research presented by Alan Hughes and Michael Kitson is based on a research project (RES-171-25-0018) carried out with their colleagues Maria Abreu and Vadim Grinevich at the CBR. The project is part of the Impact of HEIs on Regional Economies Initiative supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in partnership with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW).
 Academic Survey Report
 ECGI Prize for CBR Research
Congratulations go to John Armour, Simon Deakin, Prabirjit Sarkar, Mathias Siems and Ajit Singh for the award of the Best Law Working Paper Prize of the European Corporate Governance Institute. The prize for their paper on Shareholder Protection and Stock Market Development: An Empirical Test of the Legal Origins Hypothesis was awarded at the Annual Meeting of the Institute in Paris on 16th April.
Further details about the ECGI Best Law Working Paper Prize can be found here and details about the Law, Finance and Development research project can be found here.
TWO NEW PUBLICATIONS RESULTING FROM CBR RESEARCH PROJECTS:
 National Capitalisms, Global Production Networks: Fashioning the Value Chain in the UK, USA, and Germany
by Christel Lane and Jocelyn Probert
Firms in the clothing industry engage in global sourcing and operate in global markets. This book analyses the way British, American, and German firms in the clothing industry co-ordinate and govern their global production networks/ value chains. Using over 100 interviews in six countries on three continents, it follows the value chain from development to developing countries and studies in many issues which confront students of globalisation.
For further details about the project see The Globalising Behaviour of UK Firms in a Comparative Context.
The book is available via this link.
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 Comparative Entrepreneurship -
The UK, Japan, and the Shadow of Silicon Valley
by D. Hugh Whittaker
with P. Byosiere, S. Momose, T. Morishita, T. Quince, and J. Higuchi
Are entrepreneurs essentially the same everywhere? Are the processes of entrepreneurship similar? Or are they shaped by their environments? If so, how?
This study brings insights from entrepreneurship to comparative institutions and varieties of capitalism, and vice versa, and draws on two surveys and 25 case interviews in both the UK and Japan. It concludes with a discussion of dilemmas for entrepreneurship policy in the UK, Japan, and other countries.
For further details about the project see High Tech CEOs and their Businesses.
The books is available via this link.
'Third-stream' funding of research and innovation
The research for HEFCE on Third Stream funding by Alan Hughes, Tomas Ulrichsen and Barry Moore has led to the simultaneous publication by HEFCE and CBR of several reports which have been fed directly into UK
senior policy discussions at BIS and HEFCE. The reports can be found on our Special Reports page.
Launch of the 
 On Wednesday 4th March 2009 NESTA hosted an event to introduce the work of the new UK Innovation Research Centre (UK~IRC).
First announced in the Innovation Nation White Paper in March 2008, the Innovation Research Centre is a new £3 million initiative for cutting-edge research and knowledge hub activity in innovation. It is a joint venture between the Centre for Business Research at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and Imperial College London Business School. The Centre is funded by the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
 As part of the launch of the UK~IRC, the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University presented the latest findings from its long-running surveys of SMEs. The latest survey for 2008 produced new findings about how SMEs are coping with the credit crunch and recession. Alan Hughes and Andy Cosh from the Centre for Business Research made comparisons with earlier periods and, in particular, 2004 and the recession of the early 1990s. They also examined which types of firm have been most affected and the consequences for R&D, capital expenditure and training, and SME policy.
The full report
Further details of the CBR SME surveys.
New Research Centre to give UK the innovation advantage
The Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Imperial College Business School are setting up a new collaborative venture – the UK Innovation Research Centre (UK IRC). The Centre will receive £2.8 million over the next five years to carry out the highest quality research into how innovation can make businesses more competitive, improve public services delivery and help the UK meet the social, environmental and economic challenges it faces.
The Centre is being set up in response to The Government’s ‘Innovation Nation’ White Paper (March 2008) and jointly funded by four partners: the Economic and Social Research Council; the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts; and the Technology Strategy Board.
Professor Alan Hughes, director of the UK Innovation Research Centre and director of the Centre for Business Research, explains the context for the initiative: “Innovation is much more broadly defined than it used to be. It’s not just about successfully introducing new products; innovation in services, processes, even in business models and ways of working is increasingly important. We need new research so that both practitioners and policymakers can understand the key issues in all these forms of innovation - particularly when current global economic conditions make it more important than ever to ensure that the UK’s innovative capacity is enhanced.”
 For further details click here.
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