In issue 18: Seeking long-term focus for Corporate Britain How can we best encourage Corporate Britain’s directors and investors to focus on long-term stability rather than short-term gains? This was the theme of a recent Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) consultation. Does the problem lie with shareholders or Boards of Directors?, BIS asked. And are there particular issues involved during takeover bids? CBR’s Simon Deakin,whose key research interests include the role of law in corporate governance, responded on behalf of the CBR.

In issue 17: Boosting Breakthrough Technologies Two new reports from the CBR explore complementary issues around the development and exploitation of new science and technology discoveries. The first explores how these can potentially have dramatic impacts - revolutionising established products or industries, generating significant employment and wealth creation, and hugely boosting a country's explorts, while the second presents the case for the UK to adopt the kind of intermediate research institutions found in some other countries that have successfully helped bridge the gap between applied research and technology commercialisation in the second report.

In issue 16: Does law really matter to economic development? New CBR research is generating hard evidence that challenges previously received wisdom on the way in which 'law matters' to economic development. It is receiving widespread external recognition. A paper arising from the research has just won a major award – the Best Law Working Paper prize - from the European Corporate Governance Institute. The research arises from a maor CBR project on 'Law, Finance and Development'. The aim of the project was to ask detailed questions about the relationship between law and economic development, in particular the so-called ‘legal origins’ hypothesis – the theory that claims that systems of law have an effect on economic growth long-term.

In issue 15: Opening the door to fresh ideas: New research centre to give the UK 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.

In issue 14: Innovation Nations - Guiding policy thinking on the real innovation challenges: A report by a CBR team on 'Absorptive Capacity and Regional Patterns of Innovation' has been published as a background paper to the 'Innovation Nation' White Paper. The report looks at regional variations in UK firms' innovation performance and what role absorptive capacity plays in this.

In issue 13: Persuading the public to tolerate more risk: Our society is apparently obsessed with regulating risk out of existence. So how can regulatory agencies introduce more risk-tolerant regulation that both recognises the need of smaller businesses for a lighter touch regime and adequately protects consumers? A CBR conference in Cambridge brought practitioners together to debate the issue.

In issue 12: Money Money Money ...: Are Britain’s smaller businesses really worth all the government money that’s being spent on them? This provocative question was posed when February’s CBR conference on Enterprise and Innovation unveiled the picture of the enterprise economy painted by six successive CBR surveys in 13 years.

In issue 11: Taking on opinion and inertia: how research evidence influences policy. The Centre for Business Research has made a major contribution to evidence-based policy over the last decade. This was showcased at a two-day event in spring 2006 at the CBR Summit. With associates drawn from fields ranging from law to nuclear science, the range of work presented was extremely broad and the level of international participation high.

In issue 10: Safeguarding the 'Eureka' moment: how the innovation as 'happy accident' is under threat. Absorbing the shocks: a CBR study finds out how terrorist attacks and the rising pound have affected Britain's high-tech firms. Squandering human resources: new CBR survey paints a pessimistic picture of the attempt to upgrade British working practices.

In issue 9: The price of failure: how bankruptcy laws tie down entrepreneurial ambition. 'How can we be sure of Shell?': CBR researchers assess the impact of the business scandal surrounding the oil giant. Why the British love working long hours: new CBR study of the EU Working Time Directive.

In issue 8: World economy in the balance: Why the rich would do well to help the poor. The beer beneath the froth: how existing high-tech small firms are being overlooked by policy makers. Taking science to market: the relationship between entrepreneurship, university spin-out activity and economic growth.

In issue 7: A bestseller with bite: the book that changed the automotive world. Small firms short of skills: access to finance no longer the big issue among smaller firms. A marketplace for ideas: what the future holds for the UK biotech industry in the midst of uncertainty.

In issue 6: Beyond the Good Idea: Manage dynamically - or risk failure. Policy and the pay gap: how new rights for working parents may worsen the gender pay gap. Counting the real cost of a takeover: does buying another firm really create value for acquiring companies?

In issue 5: Business Clusters - are they really all they're cracked up to be? Business ethics under the spotlight: how business ethics and related regulation are developing in an era of globalisation. Putting small firms first: Trade Secretary talks to Top Floor about how company law must change to help smaller businesses.

In issue 4: Funding innovation - does the law help or hinder? How economic instability 'kills': the impact of macroeconomic instability on quoted firms in the UK. Tackling child labour. Stephen Rubin, chairman of Pentland Group, on the issues facing companies trying to end child labour in their supply chains.

In issue 3: Passion and Performance: What happens when business partners fall out. How to combat bribery in business: Why criminalising bribery brings new risks for British companies whose staff work abroad. Takeovers can seriously damage your wealth: New CBR analysis of why most shareholders end up losing money after a merger.

In issue 2: A partnership of equals? How pressure from shareholders makes it difficult for the managers to sustain truly co-operative partnerships with staff and suppliers. TUPE or not TUPE: The role played by the law in last year's rescue of the Rover Group. Grey Power: Why US pension funds have recently become a force to reckon with.

In issue 1: Brother, can you spare £100,000? Where small and medium-sized firms turn when they need capital for expansion. Taking the profit out of crime: ways the international financial community is fighting the ever-evolving crime of money-laundering. How training creates jobs: news from CBR pilot study into the impact of training on job creation in small firms.