Centre for Industry & Government

Current research projects

Emerging Industries – Policy and Regulation

What roles can and do governments play as new industries emerge from the science base? This project is investigating the rationales for government intervention as such industries emerge, analysing the role of regulation on the success of the emergence of new industries, and looking at the practice of government support for new industries. The project hopes to develop a better theory basis for intervention in nascent science based industries and to provide tools for policymakers to assist the successful emergence of new industries.

High Value Production: Survey of the link between production structure and company outcomes

The importance of production to company performance across various sectors has been widely debated. Recent events in financial markets have re-opened these conversations, specifically on how a balanced economy is achieved, both in terms of sectoral differences and in terms of activities across the value chain from research, through production and on to service provision.

This survey is attempting to further our understanding of when and how production structure is linked to company outcomes. By looking at how companies are structured and their outcomes (in terms of profitability and turnover growth) we hope to understand which patterns of production ownership and location provide the best returns.

Contrasting industry and government positions on modes and timing of innovation support

While the significance of innovation is recognised, the attitudes of the public and the private sector on how innovation should be supported are not well understood. There appears to be little work contrasting the attitudes of industrialists and legislators in this area at a detailed level.

To further understanding in this area the Centre for Industry and Government will survey the views of senior managers and civil servants in the UK on how support for innovation should be provided across a range of industries. The survey will help to assess how well theories of support are aligned with actual policy, as well as with the expectations and understandings of managers and legislators. The results will help inform discussions between industry and government on policy interventions.

Defining modern industrial policy frameworks

The use of industrial policy in developed economies such as the United Kingdom has gone in and out of favour over the past thirty years. There is a current resurgence in both the use of the term industrial policy and the potential for interventions which will impact the structure of industry. However the foundation for industrial policy, especially in a developed economy, has become unclear. The existing rationales based on market failure and system failure struggle to explain or guide the policy maker.

Investigating industrial policy development processes

There is a need to understand the process by which new industrial policy is developed. Do the established methods for the development of industrial policy work in this uncertain environment? How do various countries (such as France, the USA and China) approach the development of industrial policy?

CIKC: Translating emerging science into a new manufacturing industry

The continuous evolution of the practice of innovation and changing geographies of production capability and economic growth make it unclear how a new manufacturing industry, such as that based on exploiting molecular and macromolecular materials (MMM) for photonics and electronics, might evolve. CIG is working within the Cambridge IKC (CIKC) looking at the following questions –

• How best can regional and national policy-makers support the growth of a new industry based on MMM for regional and national economic benefit?
• Are existing regulations sufficient to positively support the development of MMM based products and production techniques? What regulatory options exist for the UK?