Local Innovation Ecosystem Research Articles

ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემა - ეკონომიკური ზრდის უმნიშვნელოვანესი ფაქტორი

ლამარა ქოქიაური
 ეკონომიკურ მეცნიერებათა დოქტორი, პროფესორი,
 საქართველოს ეკონომიკურ მეცნიერებათა აკადემიის აკადემიკოსი,
 ეკონომიკური კვლევების ეროვნული ინსტიტუტის მთავარი
 მეცნიერ-თანამშრომელი
 საქართველო, ბათუმი
 E-mail: lqoqiauri@yahoo.com
 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8190-1016
 
 მოკლე აღწერა
 შრომაში შესწავლილია ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემის ძირი­თა­დი მიზანი, მისი როლი ეროვნული და რეგიონული ეკო­ნო­მი­კების ორგანიზაციების კონკურენტუნარიანობის ამაღლების საქ­მეში. აქვე განხილულია ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემის საკვანძო პა­რამეტრები და ლოკალური ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემების შექ­მ­ნის საბაზო პირობები.
 სტატიაში წარმოდგენილია დღეისათვის მეტად აქტ­უ­ა­ლუ­რი პრობლემა _ ინოვაციების შექმნისა და კომერციალიზაციის პრ­ოცესი, კვლევებზე დახარჯული რესურსების განაწილების, ტე­ქნოლოგიების განვითარებისა და კომერციალიზაციის თვ­ალ­სა­ზრისით.
 ოცდამეერთე საუკუნეში ეკონომიკის მდგრადი ინოვაციური გან­ვითარებისათვის პირობების შექმნა დაკავშირებულია ინ­ო­ვა­ც­ი­ური ეკოსისტემის ჩამოყალიბებასთან. იგი ახასიათებს რეგიონის ან ქვეყნის ეკონომიკის ინოვაციური განვითარების თანამედროვე მო­დელს და არის უფრო ადრინდელი კონცეფციის, კერძოდ, ეროვნული ინოვაციური სისტემის თეორიის აქტუალური ვერსია.
 ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემის ფუნქციონირების საფუძველია კა­პი­ტალისა და ეკონომიკური რესურსების, სამეურნეო სუბიექტებს შო­რის ურთიერთდამოკიდებულება, რომელთა მიზანია _ ტე­ქნ­ო­ლო­გიური და ინოვაციური განვითარება. ეკონომიკური რე­სუ­რ­სე­ბი მოცემულ შემთხვევაში თავის თავში მოიცავს როგორც მატ­ერ­ია­ლურ რესურსებს, ასევე ადამიანისეულ კაპიტალს. აქვე უნდა აღ­ვნიშნოთ, რომ ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემა თავისი არსით წა­რმო­ა­დ­გენს ორი განსხვავებული სისტემის ერთობლიობას _ ესენია: სა­მეც­ნიერო-კვლევითი და კომერციული. დღეისთვის აქტუალურია სა­მეცნიერო კვლევების და დამუშავებებზე გაწეული ი­ნ­ვე­ს­ტი­ცი­ე­ბ­ის საერთო მოცულობაში კომერციული სექტორის წილის გა­დი­დება.
 საკვანძო სიტყვები: ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემა, ბიოლოგიური ეკოსისტემა, ფუნდამენტური კვლევები, კომერციალიზაციის პროცესი, სახელმწიფო ინვესტიციები, ვენჩურული კაპიტალი, ინოვაციური ეკოსისტემის მოდელი.

Exploring Strategic Directions for the Local Innovation Ecosystem Development in the Mining Industry

The paper is aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the core components of the local innovation ecosystem in the mining industry, including the role of the main actors related to the development and commercialization of innovation in the sector, such as mining operators, technology suppliers and service providers, research and development institutions, local communities, governments and policymakers. As a result of the study, a set of recommendations is presented which focused on the strategic directions that should be taken into consideration in order to develop an effective and efficient local innovation ecosystem and enhance the level and quality of innovation in the industry.

Innovative urban ecosystems – features of Russian formation and development

Innovation ecosystem is one of the tools to create conditions that increase the competitiveness of organizations in the national and regional economies. Based on the historical analysis of the formation of the management system in the scientific and technical sphere, carried out by the authors of the article, the elements of the ecosystem that make the main contribution to the overall potential of the Russian economy are considered. Since the main elements of the ecosystem are located in cities - in megalopolises and in specialized settlements - the problem of innovative development and territorial distribution are intertwined more closely than ever, creating both growth points and regions of stagnation. The article considers the types of innovation systems, analyzes the ecosystem approach in innovation policy and the necessary basic conditions for creating local innovation ecosystems.

Realigning Economic Development to Support Company Startup and Scale Up: A Burlington, Ontario Case Study

<p>In 2015 the City of Burlington developed a new 2015-2040 Strategic Plan: <em>Grow Bold, </em>which tasked Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) with supporting the start up and scale up of companies and making Burlington a start up destination. This article will outline the process that BEDC went through to better understand the local innovation ecosystem and the role that BEDC could play in supporting it. This process resulted in BEDC going from no role in supporting companies to start and grow to launching, TechPlace, Burlington’s new innovation Centre in 2017, which supported over 4,000 visitors in their entrepreneurial journey in year one of operations. </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Job Creation, Startup Support, Innovation Centre</p>

The Potentialities of Local Innovation Ecosystems to Tackle Wicked Problems: The Case of Aging

The authors present, in the article, a critical approach about the characteristics and dimensions of wicked problems and discuss the application of this theoretical framework to the comprehension and action in a contemporary major issue: active and healthy aging. Under this conception, active and healthy aging promotion is conceived as a complex, uncertain and multidimensional problem requiring innovative forms of thought and intervention, namely in local or regional contexts. Innovative local ecosystems, engaging multiple stakeholders in a quadruple helix perspective, are presented as an adequate way to intervene in wicked problems’ response and particularly on the aging issues. At the end of the article, the authors present an example of a regional innovation ecosystem, in Portugal, associated with a global and synergic intervention in the domain of active and healthy aging and reflect on the critical elements of model’s replication.

Local Accelerator Programs Towards Increasing Innovation Within Smart Cities

As every part of our life changes due to digital transformation, innovation is the key enabler for radical transformation towards smart cities. Innovation is a process of generating, applying, testing, improving and up-scaling new ideas, concepts or products. Even though it cannot be planned, it can be guaranteed if it is embedded in the best available environment that allows rapid prototyping/testing, provides real-time feedback and encouraging great ideas so they become resilient new offers towards the market, triggering demands and interests. Former industry-driven cities nowadays increasingly step-up as active agents to drive and support local innovation through co-working areas, accelerators, open data policies and other areas of action. They intrinsically push for sustainable, digital and inclusive innovation that benefits the greater wealth of society. In this research, the links between cities and local innovation ecosystems are investigated. The self-referential and autopoietic capability to Smart City innovation ecosystems distinguishes it from industry-led innovation. It can only be understood with the new theme which digital transformation brings into play. By driving local innovation, cities can support the growth of local companies, solving societal challenges by referring back to market dynamics.

Developing a local innovation ecosystem through a university coordinated innovation platform: The University of Fort Hare

ABSTRACTThis article builds on the concept of the ‘Development University’ and draws on findings from previous studies by the author on the transformation pathway and a university-coordinated intermediary platform at the University of Fort Hare. The article places the university at the centre of the development of an innovation ecosystem to facilitate the development of ecosystem platform architectures for engaged scholarship projects and their implementation for the benefit of local communities. The platform ecosystem design framework derived in this article approaches the analysis from three levels: (1) Contextual considerations and design requirements through a development pathway framework; (2) distinguishing between top-down creation of institutional mechanisms and the emergence of bottom-up engaged scholarship activities; and (3) some reflection on the governance and orchestration of the intermediary platform architectural design considerations.

Uncovering transfer – a cross-national comparative analysis

PurposeSuccessful knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) is necessary to ensure the competitiveness and growth of national innovation systems. In this regard, technology transfer offices (TTOs) are becoming indispensable in their capacity as intermediaries between science, policy, industry, and the public. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies and operations of particularly productive transfer offices in five different countries in order to account for the high levels of transfer activity.Design/methodology/approachTo this end, the authors interviewed 34 senior KTT managers in these offices. The collected protocols were analysed in three phases. First, the authors extracted and organised the key characteristics of the transfer practices by applying rigorous method of open-end, qualitative content analysis. The authors then enhanced the thus gathered descriptive statistics and ultimately developed a transfer office typology by building on the concept of attribute space.FindingsThe analysis suggests two ideal types of transfer offices, distinguishable in terms of their intertwined characteristics such as their goals, practices, sources of income, and positions within their associated organisations. While the primarily state-funded common good type would seek benefits to the public, the self-financed entrepreneurial type would pursue commercial success. The former would therefore create opportunities for disseminating knowledge and strengthening the local innovation ecosystem, while the latter would scout for promising ideas and cultivate relationships with industry.Originality/valueThe goal was to uncover the individual characteristics of the offices under study, and the relationships between these characteristics, that can help explain these offices’ exceptional productivity. This study is the first to propose a TTO typology, which can support interorganisational and international transfer collaboration. The findings provide empirical evidence for the theoretical Quadruple Helix model of the innovation system and have implications for research and practice.

Taming wicked civic challenges with an innovative crowd

Civic challenges such as urban mobility and energy problems offer new corporate innovation opportunities. However, such challenges are wicked and difficult to tame. They require novel solutions that account for and integrate contradictory perspectives within the local innovation ecosystem of firms, governments, and citizens. This article presents a successful civic innovation crowdsourcing project case study, in which multinational firm Bombardier encouraged a global civic crowd to co-create visionary solutions to the challenge of future mobility in crowded cities around the world. Bombardier recruited a global crowd of 900 individuals and facilitated the citizen development of more than 215 solutions of unique firm value. We explore the process and outcome of this crowdsourcing project and derive actionable design principles for a three-phased civic innovation crowdsourcing process including: (1) crowd construction, (2) crowd knowledge acquisition, and (3) crowd knowledge assimilation. This process enables the crowd to integrate members’ diverse and contradictory knowledge proactively at both the team and individual levels. Additionally, the crowd is able to balance extension of existing local solutions and exploration of path-breaking technologies and solution concepts.

The new face of university–business cooperation in Finland

This paper analyses the development of university–business cooperation (UBC) in Finland in the context of the University Reform Act of 2009, drawing on the experience of four universities: Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, University of Turku, and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Six UBC dimensions are examined: institutional context, stakeholders, motivations, facilitators/inhibitors, benefits, and drawbacks. We find that UBC, while a relatively recent process, is growing fast in dynamic local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems. The University Act of 2009 had an uneven effect on the six UBC dimensions, with the most visible impact being manifested on motivations. Aalto University’s leading position in UBC and strong capacity to raise public and private funding has a dual effect: while being a major achievement, it also tends to polarize the Finnish universities financially, through a Matthew effect that may slow down UBC development in other universities.

The Role and Performance of Accelerators in the Australian Startup Ecosystem

The scope of this project was to assess the value-add of Australian incubators and accelerators to the high-growth innovative startups they support, as well as to the local, regional and national innovation ecosystems. This scope includes exploring their impact on the development of entrepreneurial networks, improving the performance of the supported startups, and providing generally positive economic and social outcomes. While the focus was nominally on incubators and accelerators, other support organisations for startups were considered, including co-working spaces, angel groups, mentoring programs and training services.

Mission impossible? Entrepreneurial universities and peripheral regional innovation systems

As part of their ‘third mission’ to commercialise research and cultivate growth in local economies, universities have been accorded a central role in regional innovation systems. This paper takes issue with this policy emphasis. It presents empirical evidence suggesting the entrepreneurial spillovers from universities have been greatly exaggerated, especially in some peripheral regions. The explanation offered for this poor performance hinges on the substantive disconnect between universities and their surrounding local entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems. Despite their marginal economic contribution, the paper claims that ‘policy entrepreneurs’ play a powerful role in cumulatively reinforcing the dominant role of universities through a process of ‘institutional capture’, the outcome of which results in a form of ‘policy lock-in’. The implications of these findings for public policy are outlined.