Issue No. 4 (Nov. 2011) - Open innovation: putting the concept into practice

Editorial - European innovation policy: New trends and new practices

Dear readers,

Open innovation is a concept which not only attracts increasing attention from the academic community, but is also continuously becoming a focus of business practices. Enterprises are recognising that cooperation with each other, sharing and sourcing knowledge from outside to create synergies, is an effective engine for innovation and growth. To complement our recent study on Open Innovation, we offer in this issue an interesting example from industry on how to benefit from Open Innovation in practice.
 

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Open innovation: putting the concept into practice

For firms willing to innovate, dynamic markets increasingly require them to search for better ideas and wider knowledge beyond their customary boundaries, abandoning the classical view that innovation occurs within the ivory tower of a single firm. The Life Science Cluster in Krakow can be seen as a test-bed for open innovation.

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Social attitudes to innovation and entrepreneurship: understanding the impact of the cultural context

Social attitudes to innovation exert an influence on entrepreneurship and the demand for innovative goods and services. However, the impact of “soft” factors such as the social and cultural context in which innovation processes take place is difficult to describe and measure. A forthcoming INNO-Grips study, conducted by UNU-MERIT, aims to improve our understanding in this field.

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Disruptive innovation and its implications for Europe’s competitiveness

“Incremental” innovation improves existing products or services without causing major structural changes in the market. “Disruptive” innovation, by contrast, has more significant impacts, even rendering existing markets or products obsolete, while creating new markets. A forthcoming INNO-Grips policy brief introduces the concept of disruptive innovation and explores its implications for specific industries in Europe.

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INNO Policy TrendChart on trends and challenges in demand-side innovation policies in Europe

Demand-side innovation policies are important policy instruments that intervene alongside demand, instead of a supply-driven push. They aim to increase the demand for innovations, to improve the conditions for the uptake of innovations, or to improve the way demand is articulated. Some famous success stories of demand-side tools where regulation, standards or public procurement played a critical role in spurring innovation include the internet, the GSM for mobile telephony, aircraft jet engines, high-speed rail technology, or recent eco-innovative developments.

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New practices in regional innovation policy – towards regionally adapted strategies

The Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM) is an initiative of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry to help regions in developing successful regional innovation strategies by providing policy-makers and other innovation stakeholders with practical tools for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of regional policies and regional innovation systems.

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European economic governance: a new impetus for public sector innovation?

The global financial and economic crisis has demonstrated the need for closer economic policy coordination between the European Union (EU) Member States as a pre-condition for sustainable public finances. Economic governance, as defined in recent EU legislation, is designed to enhance budgetary surveillance and to prevent major macroeconomic imbalances in the future.

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International Innovation Policy News

INNO-Grips monitors international developments in innovation policy. A network of correspondents from more than 30 countries worldwide reports regularly about the launch of new initiatives and other relevant events in their country. Their news reports are published on the INNO-Grips website. This article features a selection of news from some of the countries covered.

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About INNO-Grips

This newsletter is an INNO-Grips publication. INNO-Grips stands for “Global Review of Innovation Policy Studies”. It supports policy-makers in adopting appropriate responses to emerging innovation needs, trends and phenomena. It analyses framework conditions and barriers and drivers to innovation and innovation policy, and offers intelligence on international developments in these fields.

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