This morning I am going to shameless cherry pick from the most recent Ontario's Regional Economic Development and Innovation Newsletter (published by the Ontario Network on the Regional Innovation System - ONRIS). If you are interest in innovation and don't subscribe to the ONRIS Newsletter, do so immediately.
[And Happy Canada Day to our friends up north.]
The following is a list (with links) of some of the new studies as compiled by ONRIS:
High Technology and Regions in an Era of Open Innovation
Darrene Hackler, ITIF
Open innovation, or the process where R&D occurs outside of the commercializing firm, has become a boon for small businesses and entrepreneurs but the effects on new firms has not been fully studied. In this paper, ITIF Senior Analyst, Darrene Hackler utilizes the largest longitudinal study of new businesses, the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) and finds high-technology firms disproportionately rely on open innovation networks.
Culture of Innovation
NESTA
Seemingly a paradox exists in the arts: creativity and novelty lie at the heart of all artistic endeavor, yet funders call on arts and cultural organizations to be more innovative. Understanding this paradox is one of the reasons why NESTA embarked on the research on which this report is based. Working with one of the world's leading cultural economists and two of the UK's premier cultural institutions, the report proposes a framework for innovation that can be used by both arts funders and arts organizations. It describes the rich ways that arts and cultural organizations. innovate in audience reach, push out artistic frontiers and create economic and cultural value.The Future of Small Business Entrepreneurship: Jobs Generator for the US Economy
The Brookings Institution
This brief examines policy recommendations to strengthen the small business sector and provide a platform for effective programs. These recommendations draw heavily from ideas discussed at a conference held at the Brookings Institution with academic experts, successful private-sector entrepreneurs, and government policymakers.Innovation, Competition and Incentives for R&D
Martin Wörter, Christian Rammer and Spyros Arvanitis
Exploring the links between the type of innovation and the type of competition is essential to understand the mutual impacts of competition policy and innovation policy. This is of particular importance for countries which rely on innovation as a competitive advantage such as Germany and Switzerland, which are the focus countries of the empirical analysis. The paper investigates three research questions: Is there a relationship between past innovation output and the type of competition? Do product and process innovation exert different impacts on the type of competition in the sales markets? Does the type of competition affect incentives for future investment in innovative activities?The Role and Structure of Local Strategic Governance in a Multilevel Polity
Tijs Creutzberg, Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation
This paper contributes to the growing body of research concerning the role of local governance in supporting innovation. Drawing on a case study of Guelph, Ontario, it examines the challenges of building a local strategic governance capacity that can engage and mobilize the necessary stakeholders in support of cluster goals as part of broader efforts to diversify the local economy.Knowledge Dynamics, Regional Development and Public Policy
Henrik Halkier, Margareta Dahlström, Laura James, Jesper Manniche & Lise Smed Olsen
This report is a result of the project Regional Trajectories to the Knowledge Economy: A Dynamic Model (EURODITE). The main objective of the EURODITE project was to investigate knowledge dynamics; that is, how knowledge is generated, developed and transferred within and among firms or organizations., and their regional contexts.SMEs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
OECD
Small firms are playing an ever-increasing role in innovation, driven by changes in technologies and markets. Some spin-offs and high growth firms are having remarkable success. However, the broad bulk of small firms are not capitalizing on their advantages. This book explores how government policy can boost innovation by improving the environment for entrepreneurship and small firm development and increasing the innovative capacities of enterprises. Policy findings and recommendations are presented in three key areas: embedding firms in knowledge flows; developing entrepreneurship skills; and social entrepreneurship. In addition, country notes present statistics and policy data on SMEs, entrepreneurship and innovation for 40 economies, including OECD countries, Brazil, China, Estonia, Indonesia, Israel, the Russian Federation, Slovenia and South Africa.Major findings and messages
• The importance of new and small firms to the innovation process has increased;
• SMEs are playing new roles: they upgrade and aggregate the productivity of the economy by displacing firms with lower productivity, they enable the commercialization of knowledge, are often active in breakthrough innovation, and participate strongly in the flow of knowledge within innovation systems;
• SMEs are significant contributors to the economy: Across the OECD they represent a major share of all firms (99%), all employment (about two thirds), and all value added (over one half);SMEs and Knowledge Flows
• SMEs do not innovate alone: but rather in collaboration with others, including suppliers and customers, and with universities and research organizations. Collaboration is an important element in the strategies of innovation of SMEs to overcome some of the barriers they face;
• Spatial clustering of SMEs is strong: especially in knowledge-driven sectors i.e. those where R&D intensity, basic university research and highly-skilled workers are most important;
• Connecting to global knowledge flows is equally important;
SMEs and Skills
• Entrepreneurship training: SMEs have been helped in part by higher education initiatives to provide entrepreneurship training, especially to innovative faculty;
• Small firms provide less in-house training: and there is a gap between training opportunities for young, better-educated workers in highly-skilled occupations versus less skilled workers;
• SMEs can boost entrepreneurship skills: through use of Knowledge Intensive Service Activities (KISA) - the use of external consultants and other experts - to help implement change or strategies;
• SMEs exist within local skills ecosystems: These involve regional and industry-specific networks that bring together public and private training providers, employers, industry representatives, unions, labour market and training intermediaries, and community representatives in order to develop skills strategies and deliver training.Recommendations
The main recommendation of this report is that policies to strengthen entrepreneurship and increase the innovation capabilities of SMEs should be one of the main planks of government innovation strategies. Governments should target SMEs and entrepreneurship as a major potential source of new jobs in the recovery and recession. To realize these benefits, governments should introduce an innovation strategy for SMEs and entrepreneurship. It should stress action in four main areas:
• Promoting conducive entrepreneurship cultures and framework conditions;
• Increasing the participation of new firms and SMEs in knowledge flows;
• Strengthening entrepreneurial human capital;
• Improving the environment for social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
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