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Dissemination of research findings
In addition to publishing in academically-recognised outlets, the Centre for Business Research seeks to dissemiante its findings more generally with a view to maximising their potential economic and social mpact. Recent cases of dissemination beyond the academic community include the following:
Corporate Governance and board-level practice in Nigeria
 Simon Deakin gave a keynote address on 'Corporate governance, development and growth' to a conference on Good Governance and Regulation Leadership Forum, organized by Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission in Abuja in May 2010. The conference brought together executive and non-executive directors from leading Nigerian listed companies with a number of corporate governance experts and officials of the Commonwealth Business Council.
Takeover regulation and board structure in Japan
Simon Deakin and John Buchanan gave presentations on UK and Japanese takeover regulation and
corporate governance practice to a workshop organized by Waseda University in Tokyo in January 2010.
The background to the workshop was the consideration of proposals for the reform of the law governing
takeovers and board structure in Japan. It was attended by civil servants and policy makers as well as
leading academics.
Innovation Policy in the UK, Europe and the OECD
 and were invited to present the findings of their ESRC funded research on the 'Role of Higher Education Institutions in Knowledge Exchange between the Private, Public and Third
Sectors' to the Higher Education Funding Council for England; Research Councils UK; and senior policy
bodies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They also made a presentation to the OECD Innovation
Policy Task Force. They held a Chatham House Rule workshop on Clusters and Innovation Policy for the Rt
Hon David Willetts, MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science.
 was asked to present findings on innovation policy, and made presentations to various meetings
chaired by the then Prime Minister (Mr Gordon Brown); the Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government;
Mr Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills; and the Minister of State for
Universities and Science, Mr. David Willetts. He also provided similar evidence-based policy presentations
to the Director General for Innovation at BIS, and to the Director of Impact Assessment at BIS. also
provided advice to the Danish Innovation Policy Task Force and was invited to advise the Technology
Strategy Board on assessing the impact of their innovation policies programmes.
Bill Martin was invited to present the results of his research on Rebalancing the UK Economy to a Cabinet
Office /Treasury seminar on Macroeconomic policy in the recovery.
The economic and social impact of CBR research
In 2007 the conclusions of a review by the ESRC of the CBR's impact on policy users were published (Jordi Molas-Gallart and Puay Tang, Policy and Practice Impacts of ESRC Funded Research: Case Study of the ESRC Centre for
Business Research - report prepared for the Communications and Information Directorate Economic and Social Research Council (March 2007)). This evaluation identified 'significant policy and practice impacts generated by the ESRC Centre for Business Research (CBR). These included, among others, contributions to the Law Reform Commission's
deliberations on and codification of Director's Duties (for more effective corporate governance) and
evidence of the positive effects of Government's new insolvency (personal bankruptcy) laws ... the most
outstanding impact was found in two areas of CBR's research. This was the Centre's sterling work in labour
and employment relations and the collection of data on Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs).'
Recent cases of policy and practice impact include the following:
The impact on policy of new methods for evaluating and measuring legal and regulatory change in corporate governance, financial markets and labour markets
As part of the ESRC-funded project on 'Law, Finance and Development', CBR researchers have been involved in developing new 'leximetric' methods for measuring and evaluating legal change over
time in areas which include corporate governance law, insolvency law, and employment law. The
datasets developed by the CBR team as part of this project have been the focus of interest from a
number of international organisations.
 In the course of 2010 Simon Deakin was commissioned by the DIALOGUE section of the International Labour Office to write a report on labour law and
development drawing in part on the CBR datasets. In addition, in March 2010 he gave a presentation on the CBR datasets to a roundtable on Measuring Law in Washington DC at which representatives from the World Bank, IMF, EBRD and a number of other international financial institutions were present.
The role of intermediate research organisations in the commercialisation of science
 The work of , and on Intermediate Research Organisations
carried out as part of the IKC Commercialisation Lab project was widely quoted in the Hauser
Review on the role of such bodies in relation to the commercialisation of science. The
recommendations of their work were incorporated directly into the report. The policy
recommendations in the Hauser Report are under active consideration by the current UK
government.
The role of 'soft companies' in innovation policy
 and 's work on Innovation Policy and the Role of 'Soft' Companies was
presented in a variety of UK and EU policy fora. This has led along with Connell's earlier CBR work
on public procurement to the establishment of pilot programmes of procurement for R&D at the
Technology Strategy Board as well as the introduction of a regional scheme by EEDA. In both of
these developments Connell has been directly involved as an adviser and designer of the schemes.
'Third-stream' funding of research and innovation
The research for HEFCE on Third Stream funding by , 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.
There have been a number of important developments. In the the appointment of as a Senior Research Associate has been associated with two major project developments. The first is his involvement along with and on the IKC Advanced Manufacturing Technologies project and the second is the study into the role of "soft companies" and government R&D contracts in development of SMEs.
In addition to the appointment of David Connell as a Senior Research Associate this programme has also been linked to the work of and . Bill Martin has joined the CBR as a Senior Research Associate and will work on problems of macro-economic growth and productivity including work on the development of productivity in the service sectors.
The Cambridge IKC in Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Photonics and Electronics - Exploiting Molecular and Macromolecular Materials (MMM)
A transformation is currently underway in a large range of computer and sensing technologies, displays and communication systems with the introduction of new low cost, flexible molecular and macromolecular materials. These materials, which encompass polymers, advanced liquid crystals, and nanostructures, including carbon and silicon nanowires, are set to have a disruptive impact on current technologies not only because of their cost/performance advantages, but also because they can be manufactured in more flexible ways, provide more functionality and be "engineered" for a wider range of applications.
The new materials have a strong research base in the UK, are suitable for a wide range of commercial concerns, both large and small, and hence provide an important opportunity for UK plc. At Cambridge there has been considerable research and development into these materials in recent years, with a range of world leading results having been achieved, which have in turn been exploited, in more than 15 spin-outs to date. The market penetration of soft materials into microelectronics and photonics however has only just begun, and with a market estimate measured in $10's of billion per annum, it is certain that the UK must capitalise on its strength in the basic science.
The IKC brings together the main research activities in the field at Cambridge, namely in the Electrical Engineering Division (in particular within the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Photonics, CAPE) and in the Cavendish. Together this research spans the MMM field and is recognised as having a world-leading position.
A key feature of IKC is that it allows for the creation of tightly focussed commercialisation activities jointly with the Centre for Business Research, the and the (including the ). These will allow for the development of advanced manufacturing technologies using new macromolecular material systems and valid exploitation models. At the same time the IKC will create a range of innovative knowledge transfer activities spanning business research, training and specific product exploitation.
The Role of "Soft Companies" and Government R&D Contracts in Development of SMEs
The study will provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the role of 'soft' companies in the EEDA region and the role played by public sector R&D contracts in funding these and other early stage science and technology firms based in the region, compared with other sources of funding, including government grants, private sector contracts and other private finance. Equity and debt will be analysed in order to identify policy actions which could be taken at regional and national level to support the development of 'soft' companies and to ensure public sector R&D contracts play as full and effective a role as possible in the economic development of the region.
 University-Industry Knowledge Exchange: Demand Pull, Supply Push and the Public Space Role of Higher Education Institutions in the UK Regions
Led by and this project on the impact of Higher Educational Institutions on the regional economy was submitted in collaboration with the and was successful and will begin in the early summer with an end date of 2009. The central aim of this project is to determine the factors affecting the incidence form and effectiveness of knowledge exchange activities between the business and HEI sectors in the UK and the way these and their impact vary across regional and sub-regional space.
CBR's Small Business Datasets and Innovation Benchmarking Datasets
Three pieces of research have been carried out which are based on the . One of these led by and is focused on methods of protection for innovation and comparative innovation expenditures and performance between the USA and the UK and another led by Andy Cosh is in progress for the Office for Science and Technology on analysing the constraints on the absorptive capacity of small firms and their ability to grow based on innovations from the science base. A third led by Michael has focused on spatial variations in innovation and absorptive capacity, once again, for the DTI and drawing on the CBR's small business database. Each of these projects depends heavily upon the expertise of the CBR Survey and Policy Evaluation team of and .
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