News from the IPL
INTRODUCTION
This newsletter is published by The Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Toyota to build parts plant in Ontario
Toyota has purchased land in Stratford, Ontario, to build a 10,800-square-meter plant to produce automobile parts. When operational in September of next year, the plant will produce 33 different components for the Lexus RX300 automobile. The company expects the facility to produce other parts in 2006 for the Corolla. Machinery and equipment is being shipped from Japan and will be installed by February of next year. [ManufacturingNews]
Canada’s IT community launches a program to recognize innovative Canadian IT heroes
As part of Canada’s IT Week celebrations, the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), in conjunction with Industry Canada, has created the Community IT Hero Award to recognize individuals who have assisted their communities in a significant way through the innovative use or application of information technology (IT). The objective of the program is to recognize the leadership and accomplishments of connectivity champions in communities from coast to coast. “There are volunteers across Canada who understand the power that connectivity with the Internet and deployment of web-based applications can have in changing the lives of the people in their communities,” said Gaylen Duncan, CEO of ITAC. “They frequently work in obscurity. The Community IT Hero program gives us a chance to recognize their achievements and thank them for their dedication.”
Research Fellowships and Postgraduate Studentships at Centre For Innovation & Structural Change
The newly established Centre for Innovation & Structural Change (CISC) invites applications for up to 5 postdoctoral Research Fellows and 12 postgraduate Studentships in the broad field of innovation studies. This comprises a range of disciplines, including economics, management, industrial relations, geography, political science, information systems and engineering. CISC is a new interdisciplinary research centre at the National University of Ireland, Galway, partnered by University College Dublin and Dublin City University Business School. The closing date for applications is April 26.
Israel embarks on cluster study similar to Canada’s
The Chief Scientist in Israel has initiated a two-year project to map Israel’s high-tech industry. The project will provide a comprehensive and up-to-date database of all high-tech activity that will be arranged according to pre-defined sectors, such as cellular, semiconductors, communications, optics, and so on and will then compare the fields of activity in Israel with comparable activities in other advanced countries in order to rate the competitiveness of Israel’s industries.
Editor's Pick
Does Technology Incubation Work? A Critical Review
David A. Lewis, Rutgers University
Here is a comprehensive review of the literature pertaining to technology business incubators, summarizing both theory and evidence regarding the industry’s best practices. Although the author finds evidence regarding the social and economic contributions of business incubation is still ‘murky’, he nonetheless concludes that incubation can be considered a cost-effective economic development strategy for state and local governments in terms of public sector cost per job. The evidence suggests that if a thorough and objective feasibility study is performed, the best practices are followed including the patient provision of sufficient funding, business incubators can ensure the survival of graduate firms at a significantly higher rate than the general population of new ventures.
Innovation Policy
P. Mohnen & C. Hoareau, MERIT
This study explores the factors that allow firms to benefit from knowledge developed in universities and government labs or that drives them to collaborate with these institutions. Particular emphasis is given to the economic determinants of collaboration and knowledge sourcing from universities and government labs, including factors such as size, group membership, degree of innovativeness, growth and government support. Analysis on what determines the links between enterprises and universities/government laboratories is based on data from the Second Community Innovation Survey (CIS2).
The Fruits of Intellectual Production: Economic and Scientific Specialisation Among OECD Countries
K. Laursen & A. Salter, DRUID
This paper brings together data from 14 OECD countries on scientific publications, patents and production specialisation to explore the relationship between economic and production specialisation for 17 manufacturing sectors. The research addresses a fundamental and long-standing debate in economics about the link between science and the economic system. Using a panel data model and econometric estimations at the sectoral-level, the paper finds considerable support for the argument that scientific and production specialisation are, often, tightly linked, suggesting that developments in science cannot be considered largely independent of the economic sphere.
Perfectly Competitive Innovation*
M. Boldrin et al., Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
This paper, using a competitive model of innovation and growth under constant returns to scale, argues that the historical process of technological innovation is best understood in a perfectly competitive environment, where externalities have only a secondary impact. The authors challenge the understanding that monopoly through copyright and patent is socially beneficial, arguing that there is nothing either natural or socially useful in the monopoly power the state confers upon innovators. As such, they conclude that, from the viewpoint of social welfare, current legislation on copyrights, licensing, and patents plays a harmful role in the innovation process.
UK Bioinformatics: Current Landscapes and Future Horizons
M. Harvey et al., CRIC
This report describes a project commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry to consider possible future directions for the development of UK bioinformatics capability and the most appropriate modes of government support in this area. Following a review of the current state of the industry analysis is presented exploring the relations between several interrelated dimensions including developments in science and technology, institutional context, resource flows and funding, and skills requirement and restructuring.
E-Commerce & Broadband
Economic Profiles for US States
In an effort to increase awareness of the specific regional conditions to inform political action at the state level, the Council on Competitiveness, together with the Monitor Company, and the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness have compiled a range of regional economic and cluster related information on each of the states. Data includes Economic Performance and Innovation Output, Patents by Organizations (1995 – 1998), Overall Composition of Employment and Wages, Employment by Cluster, Job Creation by Traded Cluster and Highest Wage Traded Clusters.
University of Minnesota’s industry cluster work
The Humphrey Institute’s State and Local Policy Program at the University of Minnesota has carried out several cluster related studies over the last few years, examples of which are available at the web page Examples of Industry Cluster Approaches. This site also provides a listing a cluster strategies and education studies based on the cluster approach.
E-Commerce & Broadband
Electronic commerce and technology
Here are Statistics Canada’s latest figures on Canadian sales of goods and services over the Internet in 2001. Although the proportion of firms selling on-line increased marginally, e-commerce sales still accounted for only a small fraction of total operating revenue. Companies received $10.4 billion in customer orders over the Internet in 2001, up 43.4% from 2000, according to the Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology. However, the percentage of businesses that reported selling goods and services on-line rose only marginally to 7% from 6%.
Broadband grows at the grass-root level
The failure of operators to roll out broadband is driving municipalities to develop their own broadband networks and services – without the help of their local telephone or cable companies. The villagers of Vindeln, in remote northern Sweden, are digging up their own roads to lay fiber so that every resident can have broadband access, as are communities elsewhere in Europe and the United States. “Communities are fed up with phone companies not delivering what they want,” said Bernard Daines, chief executive and chief technology officer of Veradale, Washington-based World Wide Packets, an Ethernet company whose products support several municipal networks in the US.
Industry Associations Form High Tech Broadband Coalition to Advance Affordable, Ubiquitous Broadband
Uniting in an effort to advance new, last mile broadband investment and deployment in the U.S., six inter-industry trade associations today announced the formation of the High Tech Broadband Coalition (HTBC) – an ad hoc alliance representing the computer, telecommunications equipment, semiconductor, consumer electronics, software and manufacturing sectors. Leaders of the coalition explained that HTBC is committed to the rapid and ubiquitous deployment of fast, interactive, content-rich and affordable broadband services.
Events
2002 Knowledge Management Conference: Driving Business Results through Knowledge Management
Toronto, 16-17 April, 2002
The Conference Board of Canada’s 2002 Knowledge Management Conference examines design, application and implementation with practical solutions, tools and techniques related knowledge management. Questions to be addressed will be how to organize for results, how to put business processes, technology and people together and how to make knowledge management relevant to, and a driver of, business results.
CITO InnoTalk: Attracting Angel Investors
Toronto, 18 April, 2002
This Innotalk will feature angel members of the recently formed Angel Investors Canada organization, a group of entrepreneurs with track records of success in building companies from the ground up. They will address the issues and answer audience questions.
METI International Conference on Socio-Economic Evaluation of Public R&D
Hirakawa-cho, 18-19 April 2002
This conference, organized by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), will focus on perspectives and techniques for evaluating the socioeconomic impact of research and development. Also to be discussed is the future directions of such evaluations and the building of a related human resources network involved in the evaluation process. The conference is part of a Japanese initiative to support the Government Policy Evaluation Act and, “National Guideline on the Method of Evaluation for Government R&D” announced in June 2001.
Fifth Annual Milken Institute Global Conference: Building Prosperity in an Interdependent World
Los Angeles, 22-24 April, 2002
For this year’s Global Conference, The Milken Institute is joined by Forbes in producing the Global Conference that will host more than 100 expert panelists in debates of top issues on some 30 panels. The world’s foremost business executives, financiers and money managers will join leading scientists, academics, Nobel laureates and the media in examining the events of the past year, putting them in historical perspective, and debating what lies ahead. Sub-themes include:Financial Capital, Business: “The Real Economy”, Global Issues, Regional Realities Human Capital, Social Capital.
CITO/OCRI InnoTalk: Gaining A Competitive Advantage Through Patents
Ottawa, 23 April, 2002
This InnoTalk features three experts who will present various aspects of the patent process. The presentations will include an examination of the correlation between patents and competitive advantage — including gains in market access and impact to competitors and investors. In addition, an overview of the patent process will be provided with an examination of the effect of business plans on patent strategies. The final presentation will deliver a case study on patent use.
Ottawa, 23-24 April, 2002
This two day conference and trade show will bring together Canadian and International leaders, experts and visionaries in “smart” community development to explore application development, infrastructure technology and the community partnership building that leads to smart services implementation. With 50 conference speakers and a trade show with an attendance of over 8,000, the summit aims to provide all the necessary contacts, information and learning to help communities move in the “smart” direction. Keynote speakers include Dr Andrew Cohill, Director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) at Virginia Tech, Lynn Anderson, VP Marketing, Hewlett Packard and Brad Westpfahl, Director, Government Industry Programs, IBM.
16th International Conference on Business Incubation: Explore Your World, Enrich Your Community
Toronto, 28 April – 1 May, 2002
Sponsored by the National Business Incubation Association and the Toronto Business Development Centre this international conference brings together industry leaders from around the world for four days of knowledge sharing and networking. Along with pre-conference workshops, the conference includes three days of educational sessions and roundtable discussions covering incubation’s latest topics.
CABI’s 11th Annual Conference on Business Incubation
Toronto, 1-3 May, 2002
This year’s Canadian Association of Business Incubators conference features wide range of plenary sessions on most aspects of business incubators. These include best models for incubation, best practices in program development, incubators and their role in cluster creation, marketing, financing and impact measurement.
Innovation in an Evolving Economy
Ottawa, 6-7 May, 2002
Statistics Canada’s Economic Conference 2002 will be focusing on the investments required to meet the challenges of rapidly changing economic and social realities. The event will include several plenary sessions featuring invited guest speakers who are leading authorities in their fields. It will also include presentations in which participants will discuss research providing new perspectives on topics related to one of the following sub-themes: ‘Investing in a competitive Canada’, ‘Investing in the global context’, ‘Investing in infrastructure’ and, ‘Investing in an innovative work force’.
Industrial Dynamics of the New and Old Economy – who is embracing whom?
Copenhagen, 6-8 June, 2002
DRUID’s Summer Conference for 2002 aims to contribute to a more satisfactory understanding of the economic and organizational mechanisms underlying the current ICT-based technological and entrepreneurial growth dynamics and to examine the interface and spillovers between the new and old sectors of the economy. Plenary sessions will be organized along four themes: Technical Change, Corporate Dynamics & Innovation, Production and Use of Knowledge in the Old & New Economy, New Competition Policies and Intellectual Property Rights, and Organisation of Internet Industry Dynamics. Both senior and junior scholars are invited to participate and contribute with a paper to one of the parallel sessions, which will be part of the conference.
The KANSAI´2002 Conference – Integrating Regional and Global Initiatives in the Learning Society
Kansai (Japan), 12-15 August, 2002
This 6th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation will focus on economic, political, technological, ethical, and social transformations associated with the emerging global issue of knowledge for development. Participants are encouraged to present original research and to share best practices. Conference topics will include: emerging issues in science and technology government policy, the management of knowledge socioeconomic development, the geography of innovation shared prosperity and sustainability, and the tools, methods and institutions regional and global systems of knowledge creation.
Seventh International S&T Indicators Conference
Karlsruhe, 25-28 September 2002
This conference, organized by The Fraunhofer ISI and the University of Karlsruhe, will look at whether appropriate indicators can clarify the debate on knowledge societies and the broad, radical conversion of modes of knowledge production that are claimed to accompany the shift. The main themes to be addressed include: trends and challenges in the development of novel, advanced S&T Indicators; validity and adequacy of S&T indicators; indicators reflecting modes of knowledge production; combination and integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches; and S&T Indicators for the assessment of policy effects. Deadline for submission of abstracts is April 30, 2002.
Cities And Regions In The 21st Century
Newcastle upon Tyne, 17-18 September 2002
To mark their 25th year, the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) has organized this conference to critically examines current debates in urban and regional development studies and the prospects for cities and regions over the next quarter century. Issues to be discussed include: the way in which cities and regions shape – and are shaped by – the activities and experiences of their citizens; territorial differentiation of life chances and access to services within, and between, cities and regions; the application of theories of clusters, innovation systems and knowledge-based development to the understanding of regional dynamics and their translation into policy and the revived interest in cities as motors of their regional economies.Deadline for submission of abstracts is April 26, 2002.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.