Report

Management practices and innovation, Great Britain

Using firm level survey data, this report from the Office of National Statistics explores the relationship between management practices and innovative activity, including formal R&D.

• Across all industries, better-managed firms are significantly more likely to engage in research and development (R&D) than their peers.
• Better-managed firms tend to spend significantly more on R&D and innovative activity than comparable, less-well-managed firms.
• The type of R&D activity (product versus process and the source of funding) is not significantly different for better-managed firms once we account for compositional differences.
• The relationship between the reported share of innovative turnover and management scores is volatile and dependent on the choice of definition.
• Better-managed firms see higher labour productivity per pound of R&D spending than comparable, less-well-managed firms.