Improving the UK’s competitive position has become a matter ofnational importance. The DTI Review of UK Manufacturing Policy,published in July 2004, stressed the need for the UK to become ahigh value economy1. Previous studies including the Porter Reportand the DTI Innovation Report2 3 also...

Improving the competitiveness of the UK economyis a national priority. Recent studies – the PorterReport1 and the Department of Trade and Industry(DTI) Innovation Review2 show that the UKlags behind its major competitors in terms ofproductivity. There is a growing consensus thatclosing the...

The review’s outcomes support the Government’sstrategic policy framework for small businesses by:■ building an enterprise culture and encouraging newentrepreneurs to acquire an existing business,something that carries a lower risk than starting anew one;■ encouraging a more dynamic...

This study explores the patterns of growth, acquisition and failure amongst a sample of UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) over the period 1997-2002 using the 1997 panel data collected by the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University. The research explores the determinants...

Innovation is highly important to the competitiveness and productivity levels of advanced capitalist economies. It has long been recognised that innovation is a key motor of economic change, as it stimulates intense forms of competition. New products command a premium price, and as others seek...

The government’s objective under this strategic theme is to improve the growth capability of small businesses by helping businesses to raise performance across key areas, particularly innovation, management skills and the adoption of best practice.The purpose of this section is twofold:• To...

Die Entwicklung innovativer Produkte wird für Unternehmen in einem zunehmendenWettbewerb immer wichtiger. Insbesondere Innovationen mit einem hohen Neuigkeitsgrad,so genannte „Breakthroughs“ bieten einem Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, sich von seinenWettbewerbern nachhaltig abzusetzen.Zu...

In this paper, we report on the results of a large-scale study about typical front-end-related innovation practices in 553 Japanese mechanical and electrical engineering companies. We explore typical activities concerning the generation and assessment of new product ideas, the reduction of...

In this paper, we report the complete and unabridged results of an exploratory study oftypical front-end activities in 28 innovation projects in German and Japanesecompanies. We further reveal differences in the practice of innovation management inboth countries. Based on these, we develop first...