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This paper aims to provide a succinct overview of the important challenges facing researchers seeking to perform firm level research, along with an overview of the different data sources that may be used, and some techniques that can be employed to ensure that data is robust. An emphasis is put on the linked importance of research design and choice of data. We discuss quantitative data and, more specifically, the measures used to observe firm performance, and present different types of data sources that researchers may use when studying firm level data, i.e. self-report data, official statistics, commercial data, combinations of data, and Big Data. We examine potential problems with data, from measurement to respondent and researcher errors. Finally, some key points and some avenues for future research are briefly reviewed.

This paper explores whether firms resource constraints trigger or hamper innovation using a ten-year longitudinal study. It contributes to the longstanding theoretical debate between the resource-based and entrepreneurship views of the firm. Scholars from the resource-based perspective argue that resource constraints increase delays and unpredictable results, which thereby to impede innovation. Entrepreneurship research however suggests that organizations avoid experimentation if resources are available, and that resource scarcity therefore stimulates managers to adopt entrepreneurial practices that foster innovation. This points to our imperfect understanding on the issue.This paper contributes to both theoretical advance and managerial practice. First, to correct the bias from a disproportionate amount of interest to financial barriers, we provide a more balanced and integrated view by considering other important resource constraints. Second, to observe the difference of two types of innovation, we augment the literature by studying the effects of resource constraints on both incremental and radical innovativeness and on firms’ performance of sales and R&D growth. Finally, the issue of resource constraints is an inevitable challenge, and the findings of the paper provide some guidance to managers and innovators who are struggling with the lack of resources on one hand and with the pressure of innovation and competitiveness on the other hand. This paper is unique in presenting a long-term, longitudinal analysis of the impact of resource constraints on innovation, both radical and incremental. It presents a ten-year longitudinal study following 362 firms through the life cycle. We use panel analysis techniques to observe the impact of resource constraints on subsequent innovative performance. A research framework is derived from the literature review. We examine the knowledge shortfalls of: management; market; sales; production; R&D and finance. This analysis is bas

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms (Big Pharma) during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by Big Pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that Big Pharma are increasingly becoming 'network integrators' rather than the prime locus of drug discovery. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by big pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that large pharmaceutical firms are increasingly becoming 'networks integrators' rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.

Creative industries are increasingly being recognised as potential drivers of economic growth in rural areas, and creative industries clusters are one key part of that potential. There is some evidence that these rural clusters have distinct characteristics to those of urban creative clusters, in terms of firms’ location decisions as well as configurations of agglomeration and clustering. This study aims to identify the main drivers of clustering of rural creative industries in England, and to compare these drivers to those of clustering in urban settings. This report uses pre-pandemic web scraped data of 184,791 creative industries organisations in England to identify rural creative microclusters of geographically proximate creative firms. Our cluster mapping demonstrates that rural microclusters are widely spread across the country, with about one-third of the rural firms and organisations in our sample are operating in one of the small clusters. Our results for rural clusters are also largely in line with previous findings, which have mainly focused on urban settings and the importance of place-based assets (such as cultural institutions and social capital), location and diverse economies. We find that the drivers of clustering in rural areas are not inherently different from urban areas, apart from a weak link between rural microclustering and informal social networks. This opens avenues for place-based policy making to support microcluster formation and development on the basis of cultural regeneration alongside other forms of economic development. We argue therefore that interventions in ‘levelling up’ the UK based on creative clusters should champion, rather than exclude, rural creative clusters.

This study aims to compare the drivers of clustering of rural and urban creative industries in England, UK. We use pre‐pandemic web‐scraped data from 154,618 creative industry organisations in England, and use a novel technique to identify 71 distinct rural creative ‘microclusters’ of geographically proximate creative firms. We then consider the role of place‐based assets and agglomeration in the presence of microclusters at a micro‐level geography and find that the determinants of microclustering are generally consistent between rural and urban areas. On that basis we argue that policies to support creative clusters may drive rural regional development.