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Research within the School's Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP) on the characteristics of UK exporting and non-exporting firms has been used by the UK's trade promotion agencies, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to improve the design and effectiveness of the firm-specific policies they use to increase export performance.
The research has been used to provide an evidence base against which to judge the rationale for and effectiveness of export promotion and to develop new schemes. The research has led to a better understanding of the different types of barriers to exporting faced by different types of UK firms, and the role of previous export experience in lowering these barriers. This evidence base has both informed the design of the UK's export policy and has helped to fashion a specific, new trade promotion scheme (Gateways to Global Growth) launched by the UK in 2009.
Research by SPRU — Science and Technology Policy Research — at the University of Sussex changed the way in which government records and supports innovative activities and led to new policy measures, including the Innovation Index, the Public Services Innovation Laboratory, the Whitehall Innovation Hub and the Government Annual Innovation Report. These policy initiatives address SPRU's research findings that innovation was previously only narrowly conceived in policy, being seen as an activity driven by commercial R&D. The new policies, which generate benefits in both business and the public sector, are underpinned by SPRU research that revealed areas of innovation in the economy previously ignored, for example in innovation in the public sector and in the creative industries.
Research by the University of Southampton on competition and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry has had an impact on the pricing and reimbursement system used by the Department of Health of Cataluña when assessing the introduction of new drugs and treatments. The same research has proactively informed the recent investigation on competition in the EU pharmaceutical industry by the EU Competition. The original findings of the research, on the impact of mergers and acquisitions on different aspects of the innovation activity of this R&D-intensive industry, have also influenced antitrust policies across the two sides of the Atlantic.
The funding of innovative SMEs is widely recognised to suffer from market failures and has been an area of policy concern since the 1930s. Sussex research has contributed significantly to understanding the underlying causes of these market failures, particularly for innovative firms in the UK and EU. It has placed stronger emphasis, than was the case in the past, on addressing demand -, rather than supply-side constraints (caused by the limited number of UK firms capable of generating commercial returns). This enables it to contribute towards the design and implementation of more effective equity support.
Aston's research on inward investment has had considerable reach and significance, improving economic policy analysis on the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI). The research has:
The research in this case study has pioneered knowledge management technology. It has had major impact on drug discovery and translational medicine and is widely adopted in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The impacts are:
This case demonstrates how researchby the Centre for International Business University of Leeds (CIBUL) between 2001and 2008 has been utilised by Nestlé - the world's largest nutrition company - to improve its communication strategy and evaluate how its foreign investments create value and influence economic development, innovation, environment, society and different stakeholder groups (e.g. employees, suppliers and governments). CIBUL's research has also (1) improved the services offered by intermediaries such as the investment-promotion arm of the British government (the UKTI) and the UN body for economic development (UNCTAD), and (2) benefited the businesses thatthese bodies serve by identifying factors that help theminternationalise and derive greater value from international expansion.
University of Reading Professors have developed innovative theory of how Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) interact with different policy environments that has informed funding policy for research and innovation in the European Union and beyond. This work has led to the growing recognition of two policy dilemmas facing many countries' attempts to subsidise R&D activities, and their attempts to counter what was originally seen as the threat of the `hollowing out' of R&D activities to low-wage nations. Initially, Professor Rajneesh Narula identified how MNEs were reluctant to invest in R&D without a stable industrial policy. But a stable policy environment inevitably contained the potential for incumbents to gain privileged access to government support, which could disadvantage smaller firms in emerging, high technology sectors. This could result in such high-growth firms relocating from their home countries to more supportive environments overseas, with consequent negative impact on the economic well-being of the home country. Narula also recognised that as R&D activity in individual countries became more mature and more specialised, so firms would relocate some R&D activities to be closer to their ideal collaborators, many of which might be overseas. This relocation of R&D activities was, once again, not `hollowing out', but a response to increasing specialisation of R&D.
In the first instance, the appropriate policy response to the apparent threat of `hollowing out' of MNEs was for governments to invest more in subsidising R&D activities overall. In the second, it was to encourage a wider co-operation policy encompassing all forms of international research collaboration.
These ideas were incorporated into the EUs new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation — Horizon 2020 - where the focus on international collaboration beyond the EU represents a very significant departure from past EU practice. This is directly attributable to Narula's research.
Research published by Pugh, Wyld and Tyrrall (2001) was adopted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) to provide the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of their lobbying campaign for a sliding scale of excise duty for small breweries (also known as "progressive beer duty"; henceforth, PBD). This campaign led to the introduction of PBD in the 2002 Budget. Subsequent evaluation (Wyld, Pugh and Tyrrall, 2010) established that PBD has helped to generate new businesses (well over 100) and new jobs (at least several hundred) that otherwise would not have been brought into existence.
Research by Prof Iraj Hashi has had a significant impact on the development of policies on Employee Financial Participation (EFP) by the institutions of the European Union. The impact has been achieved through the preparation of two major reports for DG V (Employment), a study for the European Parliament, and a study for the European Commission (currently underway). As a result of these works, various institutions of the EU have proposed policies to encourage employee participation in the results of their work (in the form of share ownership, profit sharing, share options, etc.). Most recently, the Commission has issued a call for tender for a "Pilot Project - Promotion of Employee Ownership and Participation", and has also included EFP as an element of its Action Plan to reform European company law and corporate governance. These reports and the associated policy proposals have been informed by, and in turn facilitated, the research by Prof Hashi; in particular, Hashi (1998), Hashi and Hashani (2011) and Hashi and Hashani (2013).