Building An Innovation Hotspot

How can you increase innovation at local levels and build new technology hotspots? Building an Innovation Hotspot outlines the approaches governments, communities and industry have used to stimulate innovation and examines the evidence behind them. It also identifies real-world examples where these approaches have worked and where they have failed. As future industries will be built on new technologies – particularly digital technologies – the final chapters of this book consider how artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printing might change not just where innovation occurs, but innovation itself. Stimulating innovation will be key to addressing our future needs in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and in tackling the all-pervasive impacts of climate change. This is an essential book for anyone looking to build their local economy and compete in a more globalised world connected by the next wave of digital technology.

How can you increase innovation at local levels and build new technology hotspots? Building an Innovation Hotspot outlines the approaches governments, communities and industry have used to stimulate innovation and examines the evidence behind them. It also identifies real-world examples where these approaches have worked and where they have failed. As future industries will be built on new technologies – particularly digital technologies – the final chapters of this book consider how artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printing might change not just where innovation occurs, but innovation itself. Stimulating innovation will be key to addressing our future needs in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and in tackling the all-pervasive impacts of climate change. This is an essential book for anyone looking to build their local economy and compete in a more globalised world connected by the next wave of digital technology.

During the past 40 years, Shenzhen has risen from a fishing village into a globally leading innovation hotspot. What drives such remarkable growth? Is there a “Shenzhen model” for technological catch-up that is different from the classical “Silicon Valley model”? What kind of policy lessons can Shenzhen offer to developing countries and lag-behind regions? Based on international patent and scientific publication data, this report classifies Shenzhen’s technological trajectory and catch-up process into three stages: 1) accessing advanced technology by participating in the Global Production Networks (GPNs) and Global Value Chains (GVCs), 2) accumulating technological knowledge and enhancing absorptive capability through imitation and 3) achieving indigenous innovation. We interpret this remarkable catch-up process from the perspective of 1) technological specialization, 2) the local innovation ecosystem and 3) its embeddedness into the Global Innovation Networks (GINs). The last part summarizes Shenzhen’s policy lessons in fostering innovation-based economic growth in developing countries and areas.

This report looks at how to encourage growth in the Rotterdam region, through the transfer of technology and knowledge, and through realising the potential of its people.

This interdisciplinary book details the economic, cultural and social background of the development of Chinese mega-cities, as well as presenting the mechanisms of governance and urban growth strategies. Therein, the main discussion centres on the cont

Winner of Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Winner of Donner Prize A challenge to prevailing ideas about innovation and a guide to identifying the best growth strategy for your community. Across the world, cities and regions have wasted trillions of dollars on blindly copying the Silicon Valley model of growth creation. Since the early years of the information age, we've been told that economic growth derives from harnessing technological innovation. To do this, places must create good education systems, partner with local research universities, and attract innovative hi-tech firms. We have lived with this system for decades, and the result is clear: a small number of regions and cities at the top of the high-tech industry but many more fighting a losing battle to retain economic dynamism. But are there other models that don't rely on a flourishing high-tech industry? In Innovation in Real Places, Dan Breznitz argues that there are. The purveyors of the dominant ideas on innovation have a feeble understanding of the big picture on global production and innovation. They conflate innovation with invention and suffer from techno-fetishism. In their devotion to start-ups, they refuse to admit that the real obstacle to growth for most cities is the overwhelming power of the real hubs, which siphon up vast amounts of talent and money. Communities waste time, money, and energy pursuing this road to nowhere. Breznitz proposes that communities instead focus on where they fit in the four stages in the global production process. Some are at the highest end, and that is where the Clevelands, Sheffields, and Baltimores are being pushed toward. But that is bad advice. Success lies in understanding the changed structure of the global system of production and then using those insights to enable communities to recognize their own advantages, which in turn allows to them to foster surprising forms of specialized innovation. As he stresses, all localities have certain advantages relative to at least one stage of the global production process, and the trick is in recognizing it. Leaders might think the answer lies in high-tech or high-end manufacturing, but more often than not, they're wrong. Innovation in Real Places is an essential corrective to a mythology of innovation and growth that too many places have bought into in recent years. Best of all, it has the potential to prod local leaders into pursuing realistic and regionally appropriate models for growth and innovation.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is central to reforming governance, innovating public services, and building inclusive information societies. Countries are learning to weave ICT into their strategies for transforming government as enterprises have learned to use ICT to innovate and transform their processes and competitive strategies. ICT-enabled transformation offers a new path to digital-era government that is responsive to the challenges of our time. It facilitates innovation, partnering, knowledge sharing, community organizing, local monitoring, accelerated learning, and participatory development. In Transforming Government and Building the Information Society, Nagy Hanna draws on multi-disciplinary research on ICT in the public sector, and on his rich experience of over 35 years at the World Bank and other aid agencies, to identify the key ingredients for the strategic integration of ICT into governance and poverty reduction strategies. The author showcases promising practices from around the world to outline the strategic options involved in using ICT to maximize developmental impact—transforming government institutions and public services, and empowering communities for inclusion and grassroots innovation. Despite the ICT promise, Hanna acknowledges that reforming governance and empowering poor communities are difficult long-term undertakings. Hanna moves beyond the imperatives and visions of e-transformation to strategic design and implementation options, and draws practical lessons for policymakers, reformers, innovators, community leaders, ICT specialists and development experts.