Managing innovation: The pursuit of competitive advantage and the design of innovation intense environments

Abstract

Since the 1970s the field of innovation management has become the dominant policy discourse on the management of technological change specifically servicing the needs of government and business. Despite its rapid expansion in the 1980s discussion in this discourse has actually narrowed and key implicit assumptions about the nature of innovation and its appropriate management have remained relatively unquestioned. In recent years attempts have been made to once again widen discussion. This paper contributes to this widening of discussion through an examination of the way in which the pursuit of competitive advantage has shaped the discourse and policy instruments. Various policy instruments have been presented as bolstering national performance in global economic and technological positioning. One of the newest is the innovation intense environment. Innovation intense environments (IIEs) are defined here as special spaces which purportedly increase the rate of innovation and proliferation of new, high technology industries. IIEs are referred to in the literature in a variety of ways including science or technology parks, science cities or technopolises. While there is substantial variation in IIE design globally, most examples are implicitly shaped by the overall drive for competitive advantage and rely on a very limited definition of innovation. This shaping is clearly revealed when two very different kinds of IIE designs are examined. This paper examines fundamental assumptions made about the nature of innovation and its appropriate management as expressed in contemporary IIE design. The drive for competitive advantage has come to dominate public sector management of technological change and it is time that other issues were reintroduced into the dominant discourse on innovation management and IIE design.