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
Happy New Year!
The OREDI newsletter thanks all its readers for their interest and feedback over the past year. We would also like to extend a special thank you to our sponsors for another year of support.
Editor's Pick
The Ontario Science and Innovation Council
Here is Ontario’s inaugural innovation index, a pilot exercise that the Science and Innovation Council hopes will be carried out on a regular basis. The index aims to evaluate how well Ontario is performing in comparison with other key Canadian provinces as well as several relevant U.S. states, and to identify areas where improvement is needed if Ontario is to be successful in its transition to a knowledge economy. Overall, the 30 indicators that make up the index suggests that Ontario is performing reasonably well but could stand improvement in important areas such as education and training.
Competing on Creativity: Placing Ontario’s Cities in North American Context
M. Gertler et al., University of Toronto
This report examines the relationship between talent, technology, creativity and diversity in city-regions in Ontario – and Canada more generally – and compares these to the relationships found to exist in American metropolitan regions. The findings strongly indicate that the relationships first captured for US city-regions in the work of Florida and colleagues are also evident in Canadian city-regions, namely that there appears to be a strong set of linkages between creativity, diversity, talent and technology-intensive activity that are driving the economies of Ontario’s – and Canada’s – city-regions. In particular, the authors find that a vibrant local creative class and openness to diversity attract knowledge workers in Ontario and Canada. Also, Ontario city-regions in general have a solid foundation in these areas to compete against US city-regions.
Innovation Policy
Riel Miller, OECD
This presentation gives an overview of the main findings from the OECD’s Futures series, a program that sought to speculate in a formal manner on the plausible major 21st century transitions that member countries might face. The program focused on technology, the economy, society, and governance and based its projections on five axioms: that uncertainty increases with time; that change is both absolute and relative; that metrics and benchmarks change over time; that change depends on capacity and capacity changes over time and; that imagination be grounded in explicit assumptions. The talk, sponsored by Rotman School of Management and the Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, was given on November 29, 2002.
Trends in R&D, Patents and Other Measures of Innovation
Industry Canada
This slide deck provides a comprehensive overview of the trends in R&D, patents, and other measures of innovation in Canada’s private and public sectors, industries and provinces. The deck shows that Canada’s R&D intensity is considerably below the OECD average. However, Canada experienced the fastest growth in R&D intensity among the industrialized countries over the 1981-2000 period. Also, Canadians file a much lower number of domestic patent applications per capita relative to other G-7 countries, though in recent years Canada has experienced an increase in patenting activity. As for innovation, manufacturing firms in Canada are for the most part innovative: more than 80% of firms introduced a new and/or improved product or process between 1997 and 1999.
Innovation Strategy – SME On-Line Survey – Detailed Report
Industry Canada
Here are the results from a voluntary and anonymous on-line survey carried out in the summer of 2002, which sought input about some of the major innovation challenges being faced by Canada. In total, 470 SMEs and individuals completed the survey. Results have been grouped and tabulated into 4 issue categories: Creating New Knowledge and Bringing it to Market More Quickly; Developing Skills for the New Economy; Setting the Right Business and Regulatory Environment; and Strengthening Communities Across Canada.
Regional Innovation & Clusters
Smart Cities? Multi-Level Governance and Local Partnerships
N. Bradford, University of Western Ontario
In this presentation the author argues how past paradigms – Keynesianism and Neo-Liberalism – suffered from aspatial assumptions and that today a more “space-sensitive” paradigm is required. Such a paradigm balances equity and diversity, integrates economic innovation with social inclusion, recognizes the importance of bringing all players to the table, both governmental and non-governmental, and builds the capacity of municipalities and community groups to perform their roles in the new Smart City. The talk was given at “Thinking Smart Cities”, a 2002 conference organized by Carleton University’s Institute of Political Economy.
Michigan: The High-Technology Automotive State
A. Feinstein and S. McAlinden, Center for Automotive Research, Altarum Institute
This report measures the contribution of Michigan’s auto industry to the state’s high-technology sector. Using a range of fundamental and widely used indicators including R&D spending, patent grants, scientific and engineering employment, the report finds that Michigan is one of the leading high-tech states, listing consistently among the top states in the technology rankings. For example, Michigan ranks second among the fifty states in total private spending on research and development activity in 1999; sixth in total patents received during the 1997 – 2001 time period; and fourth in 2001 in terms of total employment in high-tech industries (as defined by the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)).
Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy – 2002
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative
This year’s index reveals the extent of damage from the downturn in the high tech economy: unemployment is up, the state’s consumer confidence index dropped more than 14%, and Massachusetts had only one initial public offering in 2002. Venture capital investments in Massachusetts fell 36% in the first six months of 2002 compared to the first six months of 2001, dropping from $2.2 billion to $1.4 billion. The report, through tracking nine industry clusters and 30 economic indicators, documents the performance of Massachusetts Innovation Economy and benchmarks the local economy against other leading technology states.
E-Commerce
World’s most effective policies for the e-Economy
Booz Allen Hamilton
This report, prepared for the British Government’s Office of the E- Envoy and the Department of Trade and Industry, benchmarks the United Kingdom against G7 countries plus Australia and Sweden to assess whether the country has achieved its target of having the best environment in the world for e-commerce by 2002. In addition to developing a transparent, objective methodology for assessing e-commerce environments, the project sought to understand why countries have achieved superior performance in different areas of their e-economies. Included is a case study of Canada’s Government Online Program, considered to be a benchmark in regard to service delivery and uptake, and a case study of Canada’s e-Business Roundtable.
Statistics
2001 U.S. State Rankings of Total High Tech Employment
The SSTI has compiled a table presenting high-tech’s share of employment in all 50 state. The data is based on US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which defines industries as “high tech” if the percentage of the industry’s workforce in both research and development and technology-oriented jobs was twice the overall U.S. industry average.
Events
L’Aquila (Italy) 6-12 January, 2003
The conference attracts experts in computer/communications science and engineering, management and business administration, plus all others researching the e-business in interdisciplinary fashions. Topics include: B2B, B2C, E-Business Management. Workflow Technologies, Datamining, E-Banking, Virtual Marketplace, E-Marketing and E-Government. Keynote speakers include Peter Lyman (UC Berkeley) and Erich Neuhold, IPSI/Fraunhofer.
International conference on territorial development: The key role of regions
Paris, 21-23 January, 2003
This international conference will explore the increasingly important role of regions in all European countries as a key player for territorial development. The regional level is essential especially for the promotion of co-operation and innovation at various levels of governance, from local to international. The aim of the conference is to provide public as well as private stakeholders the opportunity to exchange ideas. Themes to be covered include regions and economic development, regions and territorial cohesion, and regions and civil society.
Cito Innotalk: Valuing High Tech Companies 
Toronto, 28 January, 2003: 8:30 am – 11 am
This InnoTalk will explore methods for assessing the value of high technology companies, highlighting valuation principles, characteristics unique to high tech companies and the impact on their value, and various valuation approaches. Such assessments are a key part of negotiations for the capitalization of start-up enterprises, as well as the acquisition and sale of existing companies. InnoTalk seminars are designed to help companies find effective answers to process, systems and technology issues.
Knowledge And Economic And Social Change: New Challenges To Innovation Studies
Manchester, 7-9 April, 2003
The purpose of this conference is to bring together the innovation studies community to focus on the current developments in the global economy, in technologies, and in political systems that are continuing to pose new challenges to analysis. Topics include: the increasing importance of the role of knowledge in the operation of the global economy; and the qualitative change in the conditions under which knowledge is exploited to create wealth, to improve the quality of life, and to move towards a sustainable ecosystem, economy and society. The conference is organized by Advances in the Economic and Social Analysis of Technology and the Institute of Innovation Research.
The Knowledge-based Economy: New Challenges in Methodology, Theory and Policy
Augsburg, Germany 9-12 April 2003
This 3rd European Meeting of Applied Evolutionary Economics focuses on the most important aspects of knowledge-based economies within the framework of evolutionary economics. Conference themes include: knowledge and learning; dynamics of technological and qualitative change; industrial organisation in a knowledge-based economy; evolution of institutions financial markets in knowledge-based economies; and policy in a knowledge-based economy. Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: October 18, 2002.
Innovation through Collaboration: Clusters, Networks, Alliances
Manchester, 8-11 June, 2003
This conference aims to address the issues associated with collaboration in the context of recent research which suggests that as many as 50-70% of strategic alliances will fail within four years due to a vast array of cultural, political, technological and commercial factors. It will provide a forum for academics, business people and consultants to discuss these issues in depth by presenting the latest academic papers, delivering company presentations on the subject and running interactive workshops. Selected proceedings will be published in a special edition of The Journal of Enterprising Culture. The conference is organized by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management.
Creating, Sharing And Transferring Knowledge: The role of Geography, Institutions, Organizations
Copenhagen, 12-14 June, 2002
The conference has four main objectives: to contribute to a more satisfactory understanding of the mechanisms underlying the way in which knowledge is created, shared and transferred; to examine the promoting or inhibiting effect of particular circumstances of organizational context, institutional setting or geographical configuration, such as cities and agglomerations or clusters; to investigate arrangements particularly capable of enhancing, capturing and utilizing end consumer knowledge; and to consider the implications for managerial strategy and public policy. Both senior and junior scholars are invited to participate and contribute with a paper to the conference.
Communities and technologies (C&T 2003)
Amsterdam or Bonn, 19-21 September, 2003
This international conference is a forum for stimulating and disseminating research into all facets of communities and information technology. Attendees represent multidisciplinary research efforts from applied computer science and social science. The 2003 conference will focus on presentations and discussion of empirical and conceptual research on a wide range of topics including (Virtual) Community formation and development; Virtual communities vs. location-based communities; Digital cities, and Design methods for communityware. The deadline for submission of full research papers is March 14, 2003.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.