Open Workshop: Measuring Innovation Clusters — The Cambridge Experience
The aim of the Open Workshop Series in Business and Management Studies is to promote top-quality academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences. This is a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge and networking with local and international community members.
Clusters of innovative, knowledge intensive businesses are regarded as a major driver of economic growth and societal wellbeing. However, economics scholars have historically faced challenges when seeking to capture the scale of innovation clusters and their role in driving wider economic and societal outcomes, hindering progress in this important field of enquiry.
This workshop will present some insights from the research carried out by the Centre for Business Research (CBR) at the University of Cambridge to measure the scale, composition and growth rate of economic activity of innovation clusters. This research provides universities, businesses, local and central government, researchers as well as a range of other local and national stakeholders with a timely and granular measure of the functioning and evolution of innovation clusters. It highlights the impact of universities on the local economy and their contribution to entrepreneurial ecosystems; offers timely evidence on the businesses and industry sectors in need of financial and other support in the aftermath of exogenous shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic; provides the framework for regional infrastructure planning; and equips academic and policy researchers with longitudinal microdata that can form the basis for in-depth studies of innovation clusters and their spillover effects.
Drawing on the experience of studying the ‘Cambridge Phenomenon’, the workshop will equip participants with an understanding of: (1) how a bottom-up approach to measuring innovation clusters can overcome some of the challenges associated with top-down approaches or survey-based methods; (2) what role science campuses, research organisations and other major anchors of economic activity play in fostering cluster development; and (3) how an employment-led approach to housing and transport infrastructure planning can support a sustainable economy and improve the quality of life for the people who live or work in the area.
There will be an opportunity for participants to learn more about specific research projects carried out by the CBR, including ongoing work on the benefits of successful collaboration between the public and private sectors to enhance business growth and clustering.
Speaker Dr Giorgio Caselli is Assistant Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Business Research, Cambridge Judge Business School, and Fellow of St Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge.
He is also Fellow and Supervisor on the MSt in Sustainability Leadership at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Giorgio’s research examines the role of financial and non-financial firms in sustainable economic development, monetary policy transmission, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He has been working on several research projects, funded among others by Cambridge Ahead, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board, the Babraham Research Campus and the Greater Cambridge Partnership. Prior to joining the Centre, Giorgio worked at Deloitte’s Global Financial Services Industry and completed his PhD in Financial Economics at Cranfield University. He regularly presents his research at leading international conferences and his work received several awards, including a Young Researcher Award by the European Association of Cooperative Banks. Giorgio’s research has been published in several academic and practitioner journals such as the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Financial Review and SUERF Policy Notes.
Discussion moderated by Prof. Arnis Sauka.
Attendance is free of charge.
Please sign up for the seminar, by writing to arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu by February 25, 2026.
The aim of the SSE Riga Open Workshop Series is to:
- Foster cooperation between business and management researchers, practitioners and policymakers, as well as
- Promote academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences, focusing on but not limited to entrepreneurship, marketing, management, public administration, and strategy.
Organised by Professor Arnis Sauka, the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga