Latest news

• The conference was a great success, and we would like to thank all of the participants (over 240!) who contributed to making the conference such a memorable occasion.
• The plenary debates were recognised as an outstanding innovation, and we are pleased to announce that, subject to agreement by the participants, these debates will soon be available on this website for video streaming.
• Another well-appreciated innovation at the conference was the poster session, at which leading scholars in the field were invited to present their latest research. Poster presenters included:
  
  

  - Dick Nelson - David Mowery - Ove Granstrand, Salvo Torrisi & John Cantwell - Nick von Tunzelmann - Giovanni Dosi - John Bessant & Howard Rush - Daniele Archibugi - Stan Metcalfe & Franco Malerba - Bart Verspagen & Claudia Werker - Luigi Orsenigo, and - Martin Meyer & Tiago Santos Pereira.

  
  
• Three awards were given for the best conference papers submitted by a Young Researcher. The winners were:
  
  

  - Pablo D’Este (University of Sussex) for his paper “Persistent Knowledge Specialisation and Intra-Industry Heterogeneity: an analysis of the Spanish pharmaceutical industry” {This prize was sponsored by the journal, Industrial and Corporate Change} - Sarah Kaplan (MIT) for her paper “Framing the Future: Uncovering the Micromechanisms of Technology Strategy Making” {This prize was sponsored by The Freeman Centre} - Anna Bergek (Linkoping University) for her paper (with Christian Berggren) “Technological Internationalisation in the Electro-technical Industry: A Cross-company Comparison of Patenting Patterns, 1986-2000” {This prize was sponsored by Elsevier Publishing}

  
  
• Some photos were taken at the conference and these will soon be available on this webpage.
• A list of participants is currently being updated and it will be forwarded to all of the conference participants shortly.
• A number of papers of the conference have now been selected for inclusion in Special Issues in Research Policy, International Journal of Innovation Management, Long Range Planning, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, and the Revue d'Economie Industrielle. The special issues were targeted at specific themes, which meant that many very good papers were not invited to be submitted. We look forward to the publication of these Special Issues in the near future, as well as the publication of the many other papers presented at the conference.

Presentation

This conference is in recognition of the lifetime contribution of Professor Keith Pavitt to the study of innovation. Keith's work was based on a deep empirical understanding of innovation and firm behaviour, and  he placed particular emphasis on the development of new data, methods and taxonomies. His contributions spanned economics, management and science and technology policy. The conference is organised around the major themes of his work, including the structure, dynamics and management of innovation processes, the relationship between basic research and technical change, knowledge and the theory of the firm, the globalisation of R&D, and science and technology policy.

Keith's research combined empirical evidence and common sense to generate realistic and robust theoretical insights and policy proposals. The conference will therefore focus on new empirical contributions and empirically grounded theoretical developments. Methodological contributions in each theme are also welcome (e.g. new indicators, new methods of analysis) Read more >>

Call for papers

Papers were invited on the following themes: