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Bradford research led to the development of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) model which fed into the formulation of international policy tools: namely the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment (PRAI) and the Indicators for Measuring and Maximizing Economic Value Added and Job Creation from Private Investment in Specific Value Chains (IMMEV). PRAI was adopted by the Group of 20 (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in 2010 and is currently in use to determine relevant national policies aiming to attract investment in agriculture, in Africa and South East Asia. IMMEV is used to support the Development Pillar of G20 and its use is currently implemented in six countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Laos, Mongolia and Mozambique).
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:
Louise Haagh has played a major role in putting alternative welfare and employment policy options on the mainstream agenda. Haagh's comparative empirical research on basic income (BI) provides support for an approach to welfare that gives citizens unconditional, universal economic entitlements and multiple opportunities, through education, work, and social care, to acquire the economic stability needed to help themselves. Haagh has promoted this approach through a portfolio of international engagement with policy makers, international organisations and NGOs: most notably, the Council of Europe's `Rights of People Experiencing Poverty' project and its major guide Living in Dignity in the 21st Century: Poverty, Human Rights and Democracy; and her work with the Government of Canada's National Council for Welfare.
The research conducted by Professor Timothy Edmunds has had three primary impacts. First, it has played a role in framing policy and setting the operational agenda for security sector reform (SSR) programmes by national governments and international organisations. Second, the research has had a direct influence on the substance of security and defence reforms in parts of the post-communist and western Balkan regions, particularly in relation to the consolidation of democratic control over the security sector. Finally, it has had an impact on the evolution of British defence policy and armed forces since 2007, and on the debate leading up to the introduction of a new Armed Forces Covenant in May 2011. The research addresses change and transformation in military, police and intelligence agencies through the development and evolution of the concept of SSR. In so doing, it examines how security actors can both threaten and facilitate democratisation and human security goals in post-authoritarian and post-conflict societies, and the manner in which these issues can be addressed through international policy. It also `reverse engineers' the questions and lessons of SSR to interrogate wider challenges of defence transformation and civil-military relations in western democracies, and particularly the UK.
A major element of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 is the introduction of Universal Credit, which is widely recognised as the most radical reform of the UK social security system since the 1942 Beveridge Report. Universal Credit will be rolled out nationally from October 2013 and affect the lives of millions of working age people. Universal Credit recipients who are working will be the main beneficiaries receiving more than under the previous Tax Credit arrangements (which are being abolished). Increased payments to claimants will amount to over £2bn with 3.1 million households benefiting (according to the government formal Impact Assessment). The work of the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of York (particularly the contribution of Sainsbury and Weston) has had a demonstrable impact on the development of the ideas and policies of both previous Labour administrations and the current Coalition government. Sainsbury's seminal ideas on the single working age benefit can be seen as having laid the foundations for Universal Credit.
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.
In the early 2000s the increasing Chinese, Brazilian, Indian and South African multinational enterprise investments into advanced economies were greeted with genuine concern by policy makers in these emerging economies, where the fear was that this was a prelude to disinvestment and relocation to advanced economies. Many of these policy makers and their advisors went to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for guidance, which in turn harnessed the specialist expertise of University of Reading professors John H Dunning (joined Reading in 1964, now deceased) and Rajneesh Narula (at Reading since 2004).
Narula and Dunning wrote a key report, which transformed UNCTAD's technical assistance programme and reassured emerging market policy makers that this pattern of MNE investment was entirely predictable and not a prelude to disinvestment. The policy response in these countries was duly moderated.
This case study relates to the impact of research by the University of Cumbria's Centre for Regional Economic Development (CRED) on the regional impacts of inward investors on supply chains and the effectiveness of policies designed to grow regional clusters. On the basis of publications, Professor Frank Peck (Director of CRED) was appointed Expert Evaluator for a sequence of EU FP7 "Regions of Knowledge" project proposals (2007-2011), and subsequently invited to join an EU Expert Group examining the role of clusters in Smart Specialisation Strategies in EU Regions. This work has demonstrated that existing cluster initiatives can justifiably be used as a means of implementing smart specialization. As a result, regions are being encouraged to retain cluster strategies as integral parts of EU regional and innovation policies for the 2014 - 2020 programming period.
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.
The Lord Ashcroft International Business School (LAIBS) has had ongoing impact on SMEs and their internationalisation. The underlying research by Mughan and Lloyd-Reason successfully made the case for regional support to encourage and stimulate export activity. Following on from this work, the CURA-B project has had impacts for SMEs, economic support agencies, key customers and knowledge centres in the Assistive Technology (AT) sector. LAIBS has worked with SMEs, economic support agencies and key customers in coaching and consultative roles and through hosted large-scale engagements. LAIBS has helped shape the ecology of the support infrastructure now being put in place in the East of England, West Flanders, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Zeeland.