Innovation by suppliers has far-reaching benefits, BIS study finds

R&D, education and innovation activities at suppliers in a product chain have collateral benefits for other companies further down the chain and help to drive economic growth, a report by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has said.

A research paper published by the department reports research into the effects of investment spillover—the positive or negative effect that investment by one organisation has outside that organisation, for example by increasing generally-available knowledge or causing pollution. Specifically, the researchers used data from the Office for National Statistics’ UK’s Annual Respondents Database and UK Innovation Survey, as well as global data, to investigate the effects of a failure on the part of firms investing in R&D, education and innovation to accurately attribute a price to the outcomes of their investment.