• Experimental innovation, entrepreneurship and growth policy

www.innovationgrowthlab.org

… but little evidence on what works, and what doesn’t

£10 billion

€152 billion

Source: http://www.innovationgrowthlab.org/blog/much-%E2%82%AC152-billion-spent-across-europe-supporting-businesses-does-it-work

Billions spent on innovation, entrepreneurship and growth support programmes…

14740 evaluations

Credible (2.4%) + Impact (0.6%)

1700 evaluations

Credible (3.7%) + Impact (0.4%)

All support schemes Innovation schemes

There is little credible evidence that demonstrates impact

Source: Charts based on the systematic reviews conducted by the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (Credible: Level 3 Maryland Scale – Positive impact on employment)

Three principles for delivering good innovation and growth policy

1. Experiment

3. Judgment

2. Evidence & Data

=More experimentation

Betterevidence

More effective policies+

If there is political will

Why not trial different designs to learn what works?

Different understandings on the meaning of experiment

Trying something new

Trying something new and put in place the systems to learn

RCTs

• No rigorous learning or evaluation strategy

• No real “testing mindset”

• A “pilot”

• Rigorous formal research design

• Test a hypothesis

• Codifying and sharing resulting knowledge

• Sometimes but not always with some form of control group

• Randomised controlled trials

• Control group created by the programme manager/researcher using a lottery

• Field vs. “lab” experiments

• Different from a natural experiment

1. Experiment

Control group

2. Evaluate 3. Scale-up

A global collaboration of governments, foundations and researchers that develops and tests different approaches to increase innovation, support

high-growth entrepreneurship and accelerate business growth

We aim to make innovation, entrepreneurship and growth policy more experimental and evidence-based

The Innovation Growth Lab

Funding trials with IGL Grants

Building and connecting

communities

Promoting wider adoption of

trials

Creating useful resources

Disseminating lessons

Running trials with partners

What IGL does

Designing research spaces for collaboration & innovation

What is the effect of different types of proximity on

collaboration and knowledge generation in scientific settings?

MIT and Stockholm School of Economics

Increasing business-science links and technology transfer

Can innovation vouchers “nudge” SMEs to build successful

collaborations with knowledge providers, and help SMEs grow?

Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

Comparing entrepreneurship training curricula

What is the impact of different types of entrepreneurial training programmes (and the channels

behind these effects, if any)?

Bocconi University and IADB

Identifying the effect of tech incubators on startups

Is there an effect of incubator spaces and mentoring on

startups’ survival and their economic performance (and if so,

why)?

NIESR and LSE

Supporting high-growth potential businesses

What is the impact of external advice on business growth? (and is an initial assessment sufficient

or is on-going support to implement changes required?)

CBS, LSE and Stanford University

Incentivising employees to contribute new ideas

Can subtle non-monetary nudges be used to influence

intrapreneurial behaviour in a large corporation?

Radboud University Nijmegen and Utrecht University

There are multiple ways to experiment with RCTs

Impact evaluation of new programme or changes in the

design of an existing one

Testing small tweaks in

implementation process

(rapid A/B testing)

Understanding the behaviour of

individuals/firms and what drives it

What works?

What is the problem? (diagnosis/mechanism experiment)

Small scale & simple

Large scale &

complex

SAVE THE DATE: IGL2017 Global Conference

Barcelona 13-14 June

THANK YOU! See our recent outputs to find out more

• A short policy brief on why we need more experimental policies and how organisations can become more experimental (click here)

• A guide on how to conduct trials in the field of innovation, entrepreneurship and growth (click here)

• An online database of trials in this field from around the world, on-going and completed (click here)

www.innovationgrowthlab.org