The cost of R&D and innovation is the subject of an award-winning paper by CJBS’s Andrea Mina.
Andrea, CJBS Lecturer in Economics of Innovation, and Henry Lahr, a Research Fellow from Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research, won the Best Paper Award at the CONCORDi-2013 Conference, organised by the European Commission in Seville in September.
A bi-annual event that brings together international scholars and top-level European policy makers, the 2013 Conference focused on the theme of ‘Financing R&D and innovation for firms’ growth’.
The Scientific Committee granted the award for Andrea and Henry’s paper, Dynamic financial constraints and innovation: evidence from the UK innovation surveys.
The Award, presented by Professor Bronwyn Hall, was granted for ‘the originality, the scientific rigour and the policy relevance with which the authors deal with the complex relationship between the firm’s financial constraints and its innovation’.
The paper shows that R&D activities and innovation are a likely cause of financial constraints for companies, while the effect of financial constraints on future R&D and innovation is less important. The implication of this finding is that financial constraints may intensify at the early stages of innovation diffusion, when many UK firms (especially SMEs) may lack the resources necessary to fully exploit the outcomes of their innovation investments.
Andrea said:
I am absolutely delighted. We have worked very hard on this project and it is great to receive such recognition for it.”