The Centre for Business Research (CBR), established in 1994, conducts interdisciplinary, evidence-based research on the determinants of sustainable economic development and growth. CBR research has pioneered new methods of data collection and analysis of enterprise and innovation, novel approaches to macroeconomic modelling, and original datasets tracking legal and regulatory changes and their economic impact over time. Current projects are examining inequality in cities, the effects of IMF structural adjustment policies, macroeconomic projections for the UK economy, social rights and poverty alleviation, law and finance in the BRICS, the role of universities in knowledge exchange, business development in the Cambridge region, and the relationship between contract forms and innovation in construction and infrastructure projects.
The Centre’s areas of specialisation include the construction and analysis of large and complex datasets on SMEs and innovation, longitudinal analysis of regulatory change affecting business firms, and fieldwork-based studies of corporate governance and organisational practice. The Centre has made a significant contribution to the development of research methods and theory in the analysis of law and finance. The Centre’s research is disseminated to and used by managers, policy-makers and regulators in numerous countries.
Our research draws on expertise in University of Cambridge departments ranging from the Faculties of Economics, Law, and Human, Social & Political Science, the Departments of Geography, Land Economy, Politics & International Studies and Engineering, to Cambridge Judge Business School.
The impact of CBR research on policy and practice has been independently assessed and verified (see for example ESRC’s Impact Case Study News).
Sponsors
Sponsors of our research include the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which, for 10 years, supported the Centre with a core grant. We are grateful to the ESRC for continuing sponsorship for a number of our projects. Other current sponsors include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the EU, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
