We carry out research on economic themes of enterprise and innovation in the West Midlands.
Understanding how these key processes work in driving economic change is challenging. The task involves close collaboration with policy makers, academics, public and third sectors, as well as businesses.
Our work aims to assess the scale of the challenge facing the West Midlands and inform policy makers where they can best target their efforts.
Recent work includes:
Enterprise dashboard
Published 15 December 2009
We developed a dashboard highlighting key business enterprise statistics in a form that's easy to understand.
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Innovation dashboard
Published 11 December 2009
We developed a dashboard to measure innovation performance in the West Midlands. The dashboard covers a range of measures, including inputs to, links through, and outputs from various innovation processes.
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First steps in measuring regional innovation
Published 11 December 2009
Our report, First steps in measuring regional innovation (pdf, 1.72mb), proposes an approach to ongoing monitoring of innovation activity in the West Midlands. It includes analysis of the scale and performance of key industrial sectors and the community innovation survey.
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Benchmarking startup business activity
Published 11 December 2009
Our report Benchmarking startup business activity (pdf, 3.43mb) analyses startup activity in the West Midlands, using a wide range of data sources.
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The importance of innovation in changing economy: a state of the region dialogue
Updated 7 August 2009
Our first report from our ongoing state of the region dialogue on innovation in the West Midlands, The importance of innovation in a changing economy (pdf, 580kb), includes four independent essays on key themes for innovation policy.
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Influence of industrial structure on economic output
Published 30 April 2009
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the extent to which the industrial structure in the West Midlands influences the performance gap between the West Midlands and national economies.
Download the paper » (pdf, 824kb)
Published 15 December 2009
Enterprise indicators dashboard (pdf, 221kb)
Published 11 February 2010
Explanatory paper (pdf, 162kb)
Business demography supplement (pdf, 120kb)
Published 11 December 2009
Innovation dashboard (pdf, 882kb)
How the innovation dashboard was developed (pdf, 1.1mb)
First steps in measuring regional innovation: baseline sector analysis and the innovation dashboard (pdf, 1.72mb)
Benchmarking start-up business activity (pdf, 3.43mb)
Published 7 August 2009
The importance of innovation in a changing economy: a State of the Region thematic report (pdf, 580kb)
Published 30 April 2009
Influence of industrial structure on economic output (pdf, 824kb)
Published 31 March 2009
E-business adoption in the West Midlands 2008: full report (pdf, 750kb)
E-business adoption in the West Midlands 2008: executive summary (pdf, 35kb)
Published 12 September 2008
Regional submission to NESTA Innovation Index' call for ideas (doc, 69kb)