Conclusion
In this short paper I have made a distinction between three commonly identified types of innovation: product or service, process and business model innovation. I argued that it is necessary to move from working with individual or groups of enterprises on innovation towards stimulating innovation systems that are regional or sectoral (or a combination). Working more with an innovation systems approach should foster more business model innovation, which is critical to create new markets and innovative ways to compete, which in turn unlocks both product and process innovation. Some of the patterns that emerge by comparing experiences with different local and sector innovation systems were offered in the text. In closing I made some recommendations of how innovation systems can be better supported in South Africa in order to stimulate more innovation.
This is very different from typical value chain or private sector development approaches where an external agent analyses the system to try and fix it or improve its performance.
1
About the author:
Dr Shawn Cunningham is a partner in the international knowledge consultancy Mesopartner. He specialises in building bottom up innovation and industrial systems and he combines consulting work with academic research and capacity building.
His work
includes the development of pragmatic concepts and methods that are used by public and private experts in the field of economic development in more than 30 countries. He is working in Sub- Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia and in Europe on issues around systemic innovation, economic development and development policies.
He recently started a post doctoral fellowship with the Vaal University of Technology on Technological Upgrading of Industries, and he is a Research Associate with the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation. He serves on several industry advisory boards and also supervises several students in their research relating to Local Economic Development, Innovation Systems and Technological Upgrading of industries.
36 Management Today | September 2012 The Innovation Journal
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