This paper draws on the knowledge-base implicit in ex post evaluations of publicly funded R&D and other related conceptual and empirical studies to suggest a framework for the ex ante evaluation of the regional benefits from R&D projects. The framework developed comprises two main elements: an...

In recent years, industrial policy evaluation has been a theme under much debate internationally much of which has been spurred on through the significant EU structural fund transfers of the 1990s. Despite this, there are still few well-established methodologies to aid the evaluation process and...

Although much attention has focussed on the determinants of firms' innovation performance, the relationship between innovation and business performance is less well defined. In this paper we use data from identical plant level surveys conducted in six regions of the UK, Germany and Ireland to...

This paper contributes to the developing literature on complementarities in organizational design. We test for the existence of complementarities in the use of external networking between stages of the innovation process in a sample of UK and German manufacturing plants. Our evidence suggests...

The innovation value chain (IVC) divides the innovation process into three separate links or activities: knowledge gathering, knowledge transformation and knowledge exploitation. Here, we report a comparative panel data analysis of the IVC in Ireland and Switzerland. Both economies are small,...

Recent studies in the tradition of Schmookler have re-emphasised the potential role of demand in stimulating innovation. Here, we reconsider the role of 'home' and 'export' market demand in stimulating manufacturing innovation using comparable panel data for two small open economies - Ireland...

Recent developments in statistical methodology have facilitated international innovation comparisons. These, however, inevitably reflect both the industrial structure of the underlying economies, and the innovativeness of firms within each element of the industrial structure. The authors...

Both Ireland and Israel have, over the last three decades, established internationally competitive electronics industries. Israeli electronics has its origins in locally initiated R&D, is dominated by indigenously owned firms, and has its main export-market strengths in the research-intensive...

The provision of advisory support to small firms is almost ubiquitous in OECD countries, although it is organised in different ways and is justified on slightly different grounds. In England publicly supported advisory services are provided through the Business Link (BL) network. Here, we...