• 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