The CONCORDi-2013 Scientific Committee granted the CONCORDi-2013 Best Paper Award to the best selected work presented at the 4th European Conference on Corporate R&D and Innovation which took place on 26-27 September 2013 in Seville. The paper “Dynamic financial constraints and innovation: evidence from the UK innovation surveys”, authored by Henry Lahr and Andrea Mina of the Centre for Business Research, has been prized 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.
As the main result of the paper, the financial constraints experienced by the firms analysed do not seem dampen their R&D and innovation, while R&D activities and innovation, especially product and new-to-market ones, both make the firm more financially constrained. The attention of policy makers is drawn to the financial constraints that persist and gets even intensified when the firm innovates and enters the stage of its innovation diffusion. The policy support to this first stage is at least as important as that to innovation as such, especially with respect to SMEs, which often miss the capabilities to fully exploit their innovative outcomes.
The prize was announced and granted by Professor Bronwyn Hall (member of the Scientific Committee) during the social event of the Conference in the afternoon of 26 September.