Innovation

Key points from the Atelier Innovation

Turin, September 16, 2005

Andrea Bonaccorsi

University of Pisa

Implications for innovation policies

Governance

• Coordination regional planning- national plans

• Multi-level governance (consensus building, planning, funding)

• Selectivity, priority setting

• Concentration of resources

• Private-public partnership (permanent integration solutions: e.g. Comitè Scientifique researchers/industrialists in French poles de competitivitè; Agenzia ASTER with all stakeholders involved in Emilia Romagna; Piano per la Ricerca in Trentino).

Implications for innovation policies

Policies and tools

Demand-oriented policies

- Support for business services

- Regional incentives to business R&D

- Vouchers for technological audits/ business consulting/ potential assessment

Implications for innovation policies

Policies and tools

Integrative policies

- Centres of competence / Poles de competitivité / Technological districts/ Clustering

- Technological platforms

- Joint laboratories between industry and academia/ public research

- Joint research projects with innovative contractual tools (Contrat progrès; university-industry contracts for 30 man-days minimum)

Implications for innovation policies

Policies and tools

Start-up package- second generation incubation

- advanced services (international marketing, IPRs, global consulting)

- rapid international expansion of start-up

- integration of the financial cycle:

- seed capital > venture capital > private equity

- EU level financial market

Implications for innovation policies

Policies and tools

Human capital formation- Investment into higher education and

postgraduate education

- Critical role of PhD and post-doc in advanced areas

- International attractiveness

- Solutions for linking education and employment opportunities in SMEs (fiscal treatment, flexible contracts)

Implications for innovation policies

Policies and tools

Support policies- Monitoring/evaluation

- independent bodies

- international level

- Economic intelligence

- International networking

- Social innovation

Innovation

• Market process with many non-market inputs• Systemic view of innovation

- multi-actor- multi-layer governance- multi-process

• Innovation as an “unfolding” process: a sequence of (often unpredictable) problems, that must be solved in order to advance towards the final solution

• Cultural conditions: tolerance to errors, risk propensity, mobility, trust, self-confidence

• Not only technological but organisational

• If these conditions are not met, some growth opportunities will simply be lost for ever. Innovation has not interest groups and powerful lobbying per se.

If you continue to do what you have always done

You will always obtain what you have always obtained

Innovation policies

• Useful distinction:

• R&D-based innovation

• Non R&D-based innovation

• process technology

• style, design, aesthetics, formal innovation

Innovation policies/ R&D-based innovation

Main issues (1)

• Quality/excellence of research: “only good science is useful science” (Pavitt).

In the field of research the rule of the game is international competition.

Within cohesion policy, there is a role for capacity building in less developed regions, but only within the overall goal of quality and international competitiveness.

Innovation policies/ R&D-based innovation

Main issues (2)

• Operational linkages between research and innovation

Obstacles:- cultural differences between researchers and entrepreneurs- different time horizon- organizational rules- motivational aspects

Need to integrate in joint organizational settings for a sufficiently long time horizon.

Innovation policies/ R&D-based innovation

Main issues (3)

• Critical mass at territorial level

Overall trend of territorial concentration of innovative activities. Agglomeration effects. Attraction of young researchers and technicians.

Need to balance accurately local specificities and potential for growth and the hard rules of international competition in research-based innovation.

No pole of excellence in biotechnology in each region, please.

Innovation policies/ Non R&D-based innovation

Main issues (1)

• Absorptive capacity

European SMEs have grown out of a model that maximizes the rent from entrepreneutial intuition and skilled workforce, without any investment into long term education and R&D.

The challenge of competitiveness requires more and more high level competencies in employees, mainly young people, and continuous learning.

Innovation policies/ Non R&D-based innovation

Main issues (2)

• Creating the demand for advanced services

There is not such a thing as “demand for innovation”. SMEs do not elaborate on their competitiveness problems in such a way to generate explicit and liquid demand for services.There is a large role for public policies in helping to interpret competitiveness issues and formulate explicit requirements for advanced services.