February 2019

Latest Publications
SOTA Reviews
ERC in the Press
Out and About
Save the Date
What's On

Latest Publications

SOTA Reviews

The impact of policy support on firms’ innovation outcomes and business performance
SOTA No 17

The importance of R&D and innovation in explaining economic growth and productivity is well documented in the research literature. Government policies also increasingly recognise the benefits of supporting firms’ R&D and innovation. In the UK, for instance, research and innovation have been placed at the heart of the Industrial Strategy, receiving investments of around £3bn pa.

Dr Bettina Becker
Read the SOTA here

Value of patents for the innovating firm
SOTA No 18

Patents are the first choice innovation protection instrument. This SOTA Review outlines the evidence on the value of patents, the factors influencing patent value and highlights the gaps in our understanding of patent value in the UK. The focus of the review is on the value of patents to the innovating firm. It is worth noting that patents also have broader implications for societal welfare.

Suma Athreye

Read the SOTA here

Trade marks and registered designs: Evidence on the links to innovation and business performance

SOTA No 19

Applications for trade marks and registered designs have risen sharply in recent years with the application numbers for trade marks in 2017 being more than double what they were in 1995, and the application numbers for registered designs in 2016 reaching their highest point since 1995. In light of this, what does the evidence suggest about the relationship between trade marks/registered designs and innovation output?

Joanne Turner
Read the SOTA here

Unregistered IP rights and innovation: What is the evidence?
SOTA No 20

What does the evidence suggest in relation to the relationship between unregistered IP rights including unregistered design rights, unregistered trade marks, and copyrights and the innovation outcomes of firms? While some argue that unregistered IP rights incentivise innovation due to the convenience and savings both in terms of time and costs associated with a process that requires neither registration nor maintenance, others argue that unregistered IP rights hinder cumulative innovation and increase monopoly power.

Muthu de Silva

Read the SOTA here

Innovation, open innovation and intellectual property rights: firm size differences
SOTA No 21

With growing interaction among firms in the innovation process, the need for efficient protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) also increases. The high costs and lengthy processes associated with patenting call for firms to use other methods of protecting their intellectual property (IP). The low costs and high revenues associated with the use of trademarks entice the adoption of this measure.

Alexander Brem
Petra Nylund
Read the SOTA here

ERC in the Press

Real Business: Are business survival statistics relevant?
Telegraph: How fintech is transforming small businesses

Out and About

SME Policy forum, Brussels
On 1st February, Anastasia Ri, ERC Research Fellow, attended an SME Policy Forum in Brussels organised by the IfM Bonn and the Council on SME Research and Policy (COSMERP). The event brought together influential professionals from academia, policy institutions and senior expert practitioners (presenting institutions such as EU Commission, EIB, EIF, KfW, OECD, World Bank). The round-table debates were centred on the following topics: digitization and SMEs, access of SMEs to finance, and international challenges for SMEs in a globally uncertain political environment. Though organised for the first time this year, it proved to be a very successful and insightful event focusing on SMEs supporting policies, and should be held annually from now on.

GEM Global Conference ( Chile )
Neha Prashar, ERC Research Fellow, attended the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Annual Conference on behalf of the UK GEM team in January 2019. The conference coincided with the launch of the Global report and highlighted the key findings from the report. In addition to this, the Annual General Meeting was held and a series of training sessions were given to new team members as an introduction to the GEM data processes. The conference proved to be a great networking event and learning experience for Neha and gave her the opportunity to meet other academics and researchers from other GEM teams for potential collaborative work.

City-REDI Seminar Series
On the 12 February, Bettina Becker delivered a seminar titled "The effectiveness of regional, national and EU support for innovation in the UK and Spain" as part of the City-REDI Seminar Series

Innovation policy aims to stimulate innovation and hence firm-level productivity and growth. Here, we use data from the national innovation panel surveys in the UK and Spain over the 2004 to 2012 period to explore the effectiveness of regional, national and EU innovation support in promoting the extent of innovation activity, its novelty, and market success.

Read Research Paper No 52 here

Prof Mark Hart presented evidence to the APPG on Professional Sales on 11th February at House of Parliament on the importance of a sales curriculum in leadership and management programmes for SMEs across the UK.

Prof Mark Hart attended the launch of the British Business Bank’s Small Business Finance Markets Report (18/19) on 11th February at the Institute of Electrical Engineers in London. The report included bespoke analysis on a range of regional metrics from the ERC’s Local Growth Dashboard.

Read the Small Business Finance Markets Report here
Read the ERC Local Growth Dashboard 2018 here

New Team Member
This month the ERC welcomes a new Research Fellow to the team. Joining the ERC at Warwick Business School is Akunna Oledinma.

Save the Date

ERC Annual State of Small Business Britain Conference 2019
will be held on
Thursday June 27th at
WBS, The Shard, London.
Programme details, speakers and registration details will be announced on the ERC website.

For more general information regarding any of our events please click here

What's On

ERC Research Showcase 2019
Date :Thursday March 7th at
Time: 11.00 - 15.00
Venue:The Shard, London.
Registration now open.
Click here to register

ERC Seminar
Date: Tuesday 21st March
Times: 12.00 – 14.00
Venue: Aston
Click here to register

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