Innovation within the Context of Local Economic Development and Planning: Perspectives of City Practitioners

Abstract

Although innovation is a major theme in current local economic development and planning, there is a considerable uncertainty of what the concept specifically means, measured, and how outcomes are identified. To date, no study has investigated this glaring gap in scholarship. To address this gap, we interviewed economic development practitioners across cities in Ontario to identify and clarify how they define, apply, and measure innovation within their cities’ economic development strategies. Practitioners indicate that innovation plays a key role in their cities’ economic development strategy, demonstrating the importance of the concept within local governments. Additionally, it is clear that local governments are key facilitators of innovation. While many cities claim to have some form of innovation in their economic development strategies, a wide range of framings and approaches to innovation exist. Cities may not be taking the most efficient approach to fostering local innovation, which is critical with the rise of knowledge-based economic development.

Planning for Local Economic Development: Research into Policymaking and Practice

“…Using interviews with city officials from across Ontario, Canada, the authors critically examine how cities approach innovation and what they are actually doing to foster it. Despite its prevalence within economic policy, Phan et al (2020) find that innovation varies considerably in conception across cities. Despite this, the article finds that there is actually considerable homogeneity in the approaches being implemented.…”

“…Zandiatashbar and Kayanan ( 2020) use examples from three American cities (Boston, MA, St. Louis, MO, and Buffalo, NY) to focus on a specific place-based innovation planning policy: Innovation Igniting Urban Developments. Complementing Phan et al (2020), this article focuses both on the role of public/private urban growth coalitions play on these developments and on their impact on urban spaces. A key finding that emerges from these authors' work is the increased polarization that these spatially target strategies cause within cities.…”

Problems and Prospects for the Region’s Innovative Development in Modern Conditions

“…Фирмы и предприниматели включены в сети учреждений, которые играют ключевую роль в распространении информации, знаний и обучения, что способствует адаптивности и потенциалу роста [Amin, 2001]. На практике эта сеть учрежде-ний, необходимая для местных инноваций, и политика, поддерживающая ее, становятся одним из видов партнерства между «предприятиями, правительством, высшими учебными заведениями, инновационными центрами, предпринимателями, некоммерческими организациями и другими заинтересованными сторонами, которые позволяют регионам добиваться большего за счет объединения ресурсов и минимизации дублирования» [Phan et al, 2020].…”

Strategy for Developing Institutional Service Models for Regional Innovation in Indonesia

“…One of the efforts to accelerate regional development can be done through regional innovation. Some scholarly attention present, such as in the context of the network discussed the organization of collaboration for innovation in the framework of the Triple Helix Model by [1] in line with the Triple helix twins: a framework to achieve innovation and development goals that are not sustainable [2] the Effect of supporting the innovation of the government as discussed by [3], the Innovation of Local government in the field of agriculture in the study [4], the government's policy in the Policy of Regional innovation [5], innovation entered in the context of local economic development and planning in the study [6], [7] even review the Ideologies involved in innovation in government, innovation in the public sector and political [8] then in innovative Organizations in the Local government discussed [9]. These efforts in Indonesia have been implemented in recent years, but in the Province of Papua, there is still no real form of regional innovation that can be utilized.…”