News from the IPL
RESEARCH
Darius Ornston and Isabelle Watkinson, IPL Working Paper 2025-01
This chapter discusses how regional entrepreneurial mentoring networks (REMNs) can play a transformative role in fostering and shaping entrepreneurial ecosystems. Focusing on Waterloo, Canada, a low-density outlier in high-technology markets, it explains how the region developed a widely distributed REMN. Second, it illustrates how this mentoring network enabled Waterloo-based actors to circumvent both geographical constraints and suboptimal national institutions by legitimizing high-technology entrepreneurship and diffusing advice about how to cope with these disadvantages. More specifically, mentoring encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs to target diverse business-to-business niches, enabling the region to compete in a surprisingly diverse array of high-technology markets. At the same time, this distinctive pattern of civic capital was poorly positioned to disrupt national barriers to high-technology entrepreneurship. Indeed, the emphasis on niching risks reifying those constraints. In addition to reducing the demand for reform, niching makes it harder to build coalitions and concentrate resources. In the long run, these relatively weak ties are also unlikely to generate the soft or hard infrastructure necessary to achieve social and environmental sustainability.
Jan Jacob Vogelaar & Shiri Breznitz, Progress in Economic Geography
Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as an influential framework for understanding the spatial dimensions of entrepreneurship. Beyond offering an analytical lens, the framework’s promise lies in its potential as an ‘actionable framework’ to guide regional actors in strengthening ecosystems. This short paper argues that the framework suffers from two key shortcomings that must be addressed to realize this potential. First, ecosystem actors must overcome regional constraints by building global pipelines to access resources beyond their immediate sphere of influence. Second, they need to address the challenge of retaining key actors, such as graduates and high-growth firms, which may relocate. These shortcomings present opportunities for economic geographers to contribute empirical and theoretical insights that enhance the framework’s actionability. The article concludes that, despite these challenges, ecosystem actors have a reason for optimism. The growing recognition that different entrepreneurial ecosystem configurations support various types of entrepreneurships offers regional actors new perspectives.
MEDIA
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Leaving — & We’re To Blame
Noushin Ziafati, Three Magazine
This article features an interview with IPL Co-Director Dan Breznitz. The article discusses the topic of brain drain of immigrant entrepreneurs. It notes that a Statistics Canada study from February 2024 revealed that 30 per cent of immigrant entrepreneurs admitted to Canada from 1982 to 2017 emigrated within 20 years of admission, compared with more than five per cent of the general immigration population. Breznitz notes that one of the main reasons Canada is losing immigrant entrepreneurs is that it’s difficult to start a company and scale it here. In comparison to entrepreneurs in the U.S., entrepreneurs in Canada are less likely to have their government invest in their innovations. Reasons for this include a lack of access to public procurement, regulations and access to capital.
Editor's Pick
R&D tax incentives continue to outpace other forms of government support for R&D in most countries
OECD
This update to the OECD's data on R&D support shows that close to 55% of total support for business R&D in the OECD area is provided through tax incentives. Thirty-four out of 38 OECD countries granted tax relief for R&D expenditures in 2024, with SMEs often receiving a more favourable tax treatment. Across the OECD area, after increasing for decades, the gap between government tax relief for R&D expenditure and direct support remained stable in 2022 but continued to grow in China. In China, R&D tax support more than tripled from 0.07% of GDP in 2017 to 0.24% 2022, while direct support (excluding loans from state owned banks) remained constant at 0.05%. This growth appears to be linked to reforms to the R&D tax allowance scheme such as the increase in the rate of R&D tax allowance for all enterprises from 50% to 75% in 2018, and for manufacturing firms from 75% to 100% in 2021. Canada ranks 10th in the OECD for how much funding for business R&D it provides as a % of GDP and 6th for the amount of support of BERD as a % of BERD. Despite this generous amount of funding, Canada’s BERD remains at 19th in the OECD.
Cities & Regions
Multinationals and intra-regional innovation concentration☆
Martina Pardy, Research Policy
This article examines the extent to which the presence of multinational enterprises (MNEs) influences the concentration of innovation among patenting firms within US states from 1976 to 2010. Merging patent and regional socioeconomic data, this study explores the effects within 50 US states over more than three decades using Ordinary-Least-Square and Instrumental Variable estimations. It shows that MNEs significantly contribute to the concentration of patenting activity, an effect predominantly driven by domestic-owned MNEs. The impact differs across space: states with a higher share of MNEs experience a sharper increase in patenting concentration. Crucially, it is the non-MNE firms that feel the squeeze the most, with those in the middle of the patenting hierarchy producing fewer patents when domestic MNEs ramp up their activity. This suggests that economic globalisation, while enhancing innovation opportunities for some, reinforces competitive pressures and barriers for others. These findings offer a new perspective on the forces shaping regional innovation dynamics, highlighting the role of MNEs in both amplifying innovation gains and exacerbating disparities in knowledge production.
Statistics
Short-term Financial Tracker of Business R&D
OECD
The OECD Short-term Financial Tracker of Business R&D (SwiFTBeRD) dashboard allows users to visualise quarterly, semi-annually and annually reported R&D data for the world's top R&D investors, providing company-specific and sectoral insights. It aims to deliver the timeliest possible view of R&D data reported by companies, with updates published continuously, shortly after they have been released in their quarterly financial reports (within less than two months from the end of the reference quarter for quarterly data and three months for annual data). SwiFTBeRD seeks to provide timely business R&D trends indicators based on data publicly disclosed by companies. This new and experimental tool (made available as a “Beta”, under development-type product) complements the OECD reporting of official R&D statistics published in the OECD Research and Development Statistics and the OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI) databases.
Innovation Policy
Performance Anxiety and Access to Capital Top of Mind For Canadian VCs
Josh Scott, Betakit
Dificulty accessing capital and concerns about fund performance were the talk of the town among Canadian venture capitalists (VCs) at Elevate’s recent CIX Summit in Toronto. In closed-door conversations at the Mar. 26 event’s Investor Forum, leaders from Canada’s VC industry gathered to discuss some challenges they are facing and how to address them. BetaKit attended the Investor Forum under the Chatham House Rule, which means that information from the meeting can be shared, but not attributed to specific people.
The politics of directionality in innovation policy through the lens of policy process frameworks
Sabine de Graaff, Iris Wanzenböck, Koen Frenken, Science and Public Policy
Different interpretations of “directionality” in innovation policy and sustainability transitions literature streams suggest the need for distinguishing between actors “giving direction” contributing to transformative change, and “systemic directionality” emerging through transformative change required to address societal challenges. As an initiation toward bridging these understandings, the authors emphasize the process-oriented and political nature of directionality and mobilize political theory to conceptualize the politics of directionality. The questions who gives direction, where and how is direction given, which direction is given, and when and why does a direction change (or not) are employed to explore the politics of directionality in an integrative literature review of five policy process frameworks: Multiple Streams Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, Policy Feedback Theory, Advocacy Coalition Framework, and the Narrative Policy Framework. The authors propose an integrated conceptual framework for the analysis of the politics of directionality involving giving direction and processes of systemic directionality.
The Mine Is American. The Minerals Are China’s
Jack Nicas, New York Times
This article describes how a Brazilian rare earths mine backed by American investors illustrates China’s grip over the strategic minerals that underpin the modern economy. Serra Verde, opened last year and backed by American investors, is the only mine outside of Asia producing significant quantities of some of the hardest-to-find rare earths. With China controlling most rare earths and now withholding the strategic metals amid an intensifying trade war, the U.S. government last month quietly disclosed that it wants to finance the Brazil mine’s expansion. But there is one hitch. The mine is already contracted to sell its rare earths to China.
2025 Technology and innovation report: Inclusive artificial intelligence for development
UNCTAD
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the first technology that can make decisions and generate ideas, challenging the notion that technology is neutral. AI can fast-track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), powering smart agriculture and energy grids, optimizing production and supply chains, improving water and city planning – and more. Case studies show AI boosts productivity and improves livelihoods – if supported by the right policies and skills. But AI is evolving much faster than governments can respond. Without the right oversight and fair access, it risks deepening global divides. The Technology and Innovation Report 2025 calls for AI that puts people first and is shaped through global cooperation in which all countries have a say. It outlines policy priorities for the three key AI leverage points: Infrastructure, Data, & Skills.
Policy Digest
An IT Policy Playbook for Canada
Lawrence Zhang, ITIF
This report argues that "the Canadian economy is shifting faster than its institutions are." It lays out an agenda to address what Canada must fix, build, and scale in order to compete through technology. It focuses on "areas where outdated rules and institutional inertia are holding Canadian innovation back, from digital service delivery and data governance to platform regulation and intellectual property (IP)."
The report summarizes its key recommendations as follows:
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Canada should treat AI and other emerging tech like infrastructure: something to be built with purpose, integrated into existing systems, and governed with targeted, flexible rules.
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Canadian fintech firms are growing, but they remain constrained by a patchwork of regulation, outdated infrastructure, and weak national coordination.
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Canada needs a structural approach to cybersecurity policy, and it needs privacy legislation that is flexible, risk-based, and built for interoperability with trusted global trading partners in the long term.
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Digital government should provide quick access to services, efficient response to crises, and secure, resilient digital infrastructure that businesses can build on. And digital infrastructure policy should embrace performance over orthodoxy.
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Online safety policy should protect users and hold platforms accountable without stifling innovation or turning content moderation into a blunt instrument. And content policy must support Canadian creators, not tax innovation or subsidize mediocrity.
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Competition policy shouldn’t protect the market from size, but rather protect competition where it’s genuinely at risk.
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A modern and ambitious IP policy should be about enabling success and not just boosting the number of patent filings.
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Canada needs to reevaluate the structural incentives around innovation. That means designing tax tools that reward growth and aligning public R&D with real outcomes.
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To stay competitive, Canada needs high-standard digital trade rules that enable secure cross-border data flows and global scalability.
Events
OPPORTUNITIES
The application for this University of Torino position must be submitted exclusively online, using the form available here: https://forms.gle/NHKw4Nnhta7Mew4BA .Applicants are advised that once they receive the application registration form via email, they must complete the transmission by printing the said email, signing it and transmitting the scan to the following address: incarichi.cle@unito.it.
Duration: 18 months. The total amount of the grant is € 34,200.00 and is paid in monthly installments (€ 1,900.00 per month after tax). The research activity consists of:
- Research on the diffusion of AI and robotics technologies within hospitals.
- Creation and analysis of comparative data at regional and national levels.
- Production of two articles to be submitted to international scientific journals.
EVENTS
The 10th Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy
May 14-16, 2025, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hosted by Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Conference provides a forum to present and discuss high quality empirical research by about 300 scholars representing more than 30 countries that focus on the challenges and trends associated with science and innovation policy and processes. Abstracts Due: Nov. 17, 2024.
The 24th Annual Research Money Conference
May 21-22, Ottawa, Ontario
The conference's theme is Embracing Transition: Opportunity and Responsibility to Create a Better Future. The key element of a sound industrial strategy is to identify where we want to be in 15 years and then “reverse engineer” how to get there from now. But to start, where are we now? And what successes, if any, over the past five years can we lean into?
7th Global Conference on Economic Geography
June 4-8, 2025, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
The GCEG is the largest international conference dedicated to Economic Geography. Cutting-edge research concerning the sources and drivers of socio-economic change, and an assessment of the economic geography of places in a multi-scalar and multi-dimensional context.
Toronto, June 25-27, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Since 1996, DRUID has become one of the world's premier academic conferences on innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional and geographic change. DRUID is proud to invite senior and junior scholars to participate and contribute with a paper to DRUID25, hosted by Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Presenting distinguished plenary speakers, a range of parallel paper sessions, and an attractive social program, the conference aims at mapping theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, contributing novel insights, and help identifying scholarly positions, divisions, and common grounds in current scientific controversies within the field. Submission deadline: March 1
9-12 July 2025, Palais des Congrès, Montréal, Québec
The conference's theme is 'Inclusive Solidarities: Reimagining Boundaries in Divided Times.'
6th International ZEW Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship (CoDE)
October 9-10, 2025, Mannheim
The aim of this conference is to discuss recent contributions to entrepreneurial research. It focusses on the formation, growth and exit of young firms linked to innovation, environmental sustainability, or entrepreneurial finance. The conference also addresses the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship policies. You are welcome to participate in the conference and contribute theoretical, empirical and/or policy-oriented papers on all areas of entrepreneurship research. Interested researchers are invited to submit a paper (or extended abstracts of at least 4,000 words are also welcome) to entrepreneurship2025@zew.de. Submission deadline: 31 May 2025
Twin Transition, Ecosystems, and Disruptive Innovation
October 23rd-24th 2025, Venice School of Management - Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, San Giobbe - Economic Campus.
The 19th edition of Regional Innovation Policies Conference will take place in Venice, Italy.
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This newsletter is prepared by Travis Southin.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe