Completed CRIC Research Projects

These projects reflect the early stages of CRIC work. For more up to date information see the research section. Reports summarising key findings from the research within CRIC's initial framework can be accessed below. More information can be obtained from the Project Co-ordinator or in the CRIC's Annual Report.

1. Innovation Systems and Innovation Policy
2. Foresight
3. Technology Flows and the Service Sector
4. Trajectories of Demand as Influences on Patterns of Innovation
5. Innovation and New Forms of Organisation
6. Measurement of Innovation
7. The Systemic Context of Innovation and Competitiveness

The central aim of this project was to examine the role of the science and technology structures as a stimulus to innovation in the UK. The research questions were directed at the identification of and modus operandi of the formal and informal institutions which individually and collectively shape the rate and direction of innovation in specific sectoral and national contexts. In so doing we address a central concern in the study of long run competitiveness, namely, the connection between national institutional structures, policies, and the generation of competitive advantage in UK located firms. In particular, this has involved work on the relation between competition and innovation systems, on the characteristics of systems of innovation and on the various approaches to innovation systems in the literature.

Convenor: Professor Stan Metcalfe
Team: Dr. Birgitte Andersen, Dr. Bruce Tether, Dr. Vivien Walsh, Ms. Kate Barker, Mr. Andrew James, Professor Peter Dicken, Mr. Denis Loveridge, Dr. Mo Yamin
PhD Students: Mr Fabio Montobbio - Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Italy, Dr. Nicola de Liso - IDSE, Milano, Italy, Professor Mario Calderini - Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

• Innovation in Service Systems: Airports
• Patent Analysis of Trajectories of Innovation: The Chemical Sector
• Evolutionary Theory Underpinnings of Innovation Systems and Policy
• Outsourcing of R&D
• Analysis of Innovation Performance of Small Firms

The main focus of this project was on foresight processes in firms. The aim of the work was to identify best practice and to develop new approaches. Research was concerned with the extent to which firms' innovative activities are influenced by visions of the future in the foresight time frame and how and where in the organisation such visions are formulated. This led us to examine whether systematic processes are involved, what external sources of knowledge or information are involved (concerning technical, scientific, economic, environmental, social change etc) and the relation of company foresight to national foresight (in both directions).

Convenor: Professor Luke Georghiou
Research Team: Professor Denis Loveridge, Professor Ian Miles, Mr Andrew McMeekin, Dr Stephen Quilley PhD Student: Mr Michael Keenan

• The Evolution of Consumption
• Theoretical Analysis of Consumption
• Innovation and Organisation Across the Food Chain: The Tomato
  

The principal aims of this project were to develop concepts and data to increase our understanding of the role of services in national systems of innovation, intellectual property rights in relation to service innovation, and the role of services in the externalisation of firms' innovative activities. The project also had a strong concern with the issues of knowledge and expertise and the clarification of the emerging category of firms involved in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS).

Convenor: Professor Ian Miles
Research Team: Dr Birgitte Andersen, Dr Jeremy Howells, Dr Bruce Tether, Mr Mark Tomlinson
Visiting Researchers: Ms Christiane Hipp- ISI Karlsruhr Germany, Dr. Joanne Roberts - University of Northumbria UK, Ms Claudia Werker - Technical University, Freiberg Germany

• Outsourcing of R&D
• Defining the Role of Knowledge-Intensive Business Service in the Economy
• The Role of IPR in Services Innovation
• Analysis of Innovation Survey Data
• Analysis of Innovation Flows using Input-Output Tables
  

This project focused on two of the major under-investigated areas in the study of innovation, namely the role of demand factors in the innovation process for highly novel products and the relation between innovation and the emergence of new markets. Work on the project involved theoretical advances and empirical studies of the consumption of new commodities including how the development of the demand for household durables and food, for example, develops differently over time for different social groups.

Convenor: Professor Peter Swann
Research Team: Dr Ken Green, Dr Vivien Walsh, Dr Mark Tomlinson, Mr Andrew McMeekin, Professor Ian Miles
Associates: Dr Robin Cowan

• The Evolution of Consumption
• Theoretical Analysis of Consumption
• Innovation and Organisation Across the Food Chain: The Tomato

The guiding framework of this project was developed around four themes: the interpretation of "new forms of organisation" as relating to connections between firms and between firms and other agencies in the innovation process; the concept of distributed innovation processes as a specific way of unveiling significant developments in innovation systems; the analysis of forms of governance for external knowledge generation; and the relation of these themes to the emerging capabilities theory of the firm.

Convenor: Professor Rod Coombs
Research Team: Professor Huw Beynon, Dr Mark Harvey, Mr Richard Hull
Visiting Researcher: Mr Paolo Battaglia, University of Bologna

• Theorising Multi-Firm Innovation
• Innovation and Organisation Across the Food Chain: The Tomato
• 'Instituted Economic Processes' in Innovation and Competition
  

This project addressed one of the major issues in innovation research, the generation of new indicators of innovation activity with particular application to service activities. Our guiding framework was developed to observe three principles, namely, the measurement of innovation outputs as well as inputs, the identification of innovation categories which transcend the service/manufacturing divide, and the development of measures which treat the scale of importance of innovation. The project also gave very serious attention to the development of new kinds of innovation survey which reflect more closely new systems of knowledge production and innovation.

Convenor: Professor Rod Coombs
Research Team: Professor Ian Miles, Dr Bruce Tether, Mr Mark Tomlinson, Professor Luke Georghiou
Visiting Researcher: Ms Christiane Hipp, ISI - Karlsruhr, Germany

• Analysis of Innovation Performance of Small Firms
• Analysis of Innovation Survey Data
• Analysis of Innovation Flows using Input-Output Tables

The project involved three main objectives: which were to provide and support a collective data resource for CRIC, develop an analysis of the relationship between innovation and competition in a comparative context and to organise and undertake an original comparative research project.

This project was developed around the idea of instituted economic processes, developing the work of Karl Polanyi. A major empirical project was organised, using the tomato as "a probe" through which to integrate the main themes of the other six projects. It combined a study of innovation and competition, production and markets, took account of services, and was comparative in nature.

Convenor: Professor Huw Beynon
Research Team: Professor J Stan Metcalfe, Dr Mark Harvey, Dr Steve Quilley, Dr Ken Green, Professor Peter Dicken

• Innovation and Organisation Across the Food Chain: The Tomato
• 'Instituted Economic Processes' in Innovation and Competition