The question of how best to assess research performance is clearly of great concern. In December 2007, HEFCE launched a national consultation on the future of Research Assessment, proposing that a Research Excellence Framework replaces the current Research Assessment Exercise. Fundamentally the...

This report examines innovation in experiential services. These are serviceswhere the focus is on the experience of the customer when interacting with theorganisation, rather than just the functional benefits following from the productsand services delivered. The report is based on a continuing...

This research in this report is built on the argument that deployment and sustainability are key aspects of improvingmanufacturing businesses. The research is based on eight case studies of companies that have usedthe Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) Lean production programme or...

Do “Anglo-Saxon” management practices generate higher productivity only at the expense of lousywork-life balance (WLB) for workers? Many critics of “neo-libéralisme sauvage” have argued thatincreased competition from globalisation is damaging employees’ quality of life. Others have...

A significant part of the activity of the UK Department Of Trade and Industry (DTI) is concerned with enhancingbusiness access to, and use of, external sources of knowledge and expertise. In March 2005 the DTI, recognising theneed for a synthesis of available evidence, conceived and commissioned...

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium sizedmanufacturing firms in the US, France, Germany and the UK. These measures of managerialpractice are strongly associated with productivity, profitability, Tobin’s Q, sales growth and survivalrates....

Clusters are systems of localised economic activity and innovation. This report reviews current evidence on clustersand develops policy recommendations for the UK. It argues that clusters include multiple firms from related sectorsthat are co-located within a web of complex linkages and a...

Twenty years ago strategy was synonymous with formalised strategic planning. Nowadays, althoughstrategic planning systems still exist in organisations, they are not seen as the main or only vehiclethrough which strategies actually develop. It is recognised that other managerial processes play...

This document offers an introduction to work that the AIM Fellows have recently undertaken on management topics relatedto one or more of five priority issues. The priority issues, selected for their potential to help public sector policy-makers andpractitioners in their efforts to achieve...

The motorsport industry is a high value-added and highlyinnovative business sector. The UK’s leading racing carmanufacturers are world class centres of research, developmentand engineering. However, individual firms in the sector do nothave the range and depth of capabilities to...