Trials

The Impact of Intellectual Property Protection on Firm Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial

To what extent does patent protection change product market outcomes?

The granting of patent rights is a central public policy tool to incentivise innovation, but the incentive that patents offer works indirectly. Rather than directly subsidising R&D costs (as in other mechanisms, such as tax credits), or attempting to make up for any differences between the public and private incentives to research, patents provide incentive through product market protection.

Corporate Nudging & Intrapreneurship

Can subtle non-monetary nudges be used to influence intrapreneurial behaviour in a large corporation?

Intrapreneurship, or bottom-up entrepreneurial activities by employees from existing firms, can be an important source of innovation and organisational growth. Management of intrapreneurship, however, is highly complex as it is typically considered discretionary behaviour and is generally not formalised in job descriptions. Innovation competitions is one way to stimulate this type of behaviour within firms

From our blog

Monday, 2 December 2024

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) drive economic growth, innovation, and job creation worldwide

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of economic growth, driving innovation,

Wednesday, 30 October 2024

New research provides the first experimental evidence distinguishing between two fundamental approaches to entrepreneurial training: developing managerial capital versus entrepreneurial capital.

Apply for our Seed Grants!
These grants help researchers explore trial opportunities and gather valuable feedback on trial designs before officially launching their studies
Learn about how organisations are becoming more experimental
Despite the importance of innovation and high-growth entrepreneurship for economic growth, there is still little evidence on how best to create impactful support. We believe that we need a more experimental approach to innovation and growth policy, trialling new instruments but also evaluating them more rigorously. Browse our Trials Database to see what organisations are learning from experimentation!

Our Partners

The Innovation Growth Lab is an international initiative led by Nesta in partnership with several public and private organisations around the world.

Our research network

The IGL Research Network includes over 100 researchers from around the world working on randomised controlled trials related to innovation, high-growth entrepreneurship and growth.

Andrew King
University of Virginia Darden School of Business
Casper Jørgensen
The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship
Lemayon Melyoki
Innovations for Poverty Action
Lynn Wu
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
Xavier Cirera
The World Bank
Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe
London School of Economics
Amisha Miller
Boston University
Sofia Bapna
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
Nir Vulkan
Oxford University Saïd Business School
Matthew Regele
Yale University
Coen Rigtering
Utrecht University
Annekathrin Schoofs
University of Passau
Prof Dr. Reinhilde Veugelers
KU Leuven
Ramana Nanda
Harvard Business School
Dyana Mason
University of Oregon, School of Planning Public Policy and Management
Olmo Silva
LSE