Overview
Aims and objectives
The DTI funded a project for the CBR to compare the findings of the latest UK Community Innovation Survey (CIS4) and the Innovation Benchmarking (IB) Survey, which was carried out by the CBR in collaboration with the Industrial Performance Center at MIT. In essence this proposal comprises 3 parts:
- a comparison of the findings of the CBR benchmarking survey in relation to innovation expenditures with those of CIS4
- a similar comparison focusing on the issue of innovation protection methods
- a comparative assessment of innovative efficiency using the CIS4 data.
R&D activity
This part of the work explored R&D incidence and scale in two ways. First it compared the findings of the CBR IB survey with the CIS4 survey and grossed both up to the national scale at an industry level. Second it made comparison between R&D activity by US and UK companies.
Innovation protection
This part of the work involved an introductory comparison of the use of various forms of innovation protection by companies in the UK and the US. It drew upon the findings of the IB survey. Studies of innovation protection have placed great emphasis on the use of patents, partly due to their apparent measurability and objectivity. However, patents provide only one form of protecting and capturing the benefits of innovation for the firm; and this report covers both formal and strategic methods of protection.
Innovation efficiency
This part involved a comparative assessment of innovative efficiency using the CIS4 and the CBR innovation benchmarking data.
Core team
Alan Hughes
Andy Cosh
Anna Bullock
Isobel Milner