Innovation has always mattered in economic development.  But simply increasing spending on creating knowledge may not be the answer – we need to look at the whole system through which such knowledge translates to value creation.  In a context where close to $1trillion/year is spent globally on R&D and where even the largest firms are moving towards ‘open innovation’ models this old question can benefit from a fresh look.

This project explores the implications of the changing 21stcentury context of networked, global and increasingly open innovation – a world in which knowledge flows become as important as knowledge creation. It involves a network of 5 UK universities – Cambridge, Cranfield, Imperial College, Liverpool and Loughborough working with the ESRC/EPSRC’s Advanced Institute for Management Research (AIM).

The research covers 4 key questions:

- What is the (knowledge) context within whichinnovation occurs in the UK?
- How do new firms form on the basis of knowledgeand its deployment?
- How do established firms access and use knowledge to improve their current activities and generate new directions?
- What technical and organisationalinfrastructures enable these activities?

For more information see www.ipgc.ac.uk

Project leader

Professor John Bessant, University of Exeter

Project team

Professor David Gann, Imperial Business School
Professor Andy Neely, AIM Research
Professor Neil Burns, Loughborough University
Professor David Probert, University of Cambridge
Professor Dennis Kehoe, University of Liverpool

Project outputs

Bessant, J. and T. Venables (2008). Creating wealth from knowledge: Meeting the innovation challenge. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.

Download the full research findings here.








See website for full list – www.ipgc.ac.uk
 

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