O’Connor, Sean M. --- "Transforming Professional Services to Build Regional Innovation Ecosystems" [2012] ELECD 545; in Carpenter, M. Megan (ed), "Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Evolving Economies

Editor(s): Carpenter, M. Megan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857934697

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Transforming Professional Services to Build Regional Innovation Ecosystems

Author(s): O’Connor, Sean M.

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

4. Transforming professional services
to build regional innovation
ecosystems
Sean M. O'Connor

INTRODUCTION

As policymakers seek the right policies to help industrial, or even pre-
industrial, regional economies evolve into knowledge-based ones, they
increasingly focus on concepts of "innovation ecosystems," or "clusters."1
Originating in its current form largely from Michael Porter's seminal The
Competitive Advantage of Nations,2 a growing literature seeks to unpack
and suggest ways to operationalize these concepts. Porter has succinctly
defined his notion of a cluster as a "geographic concentration[] of inter-
connected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, firms in
related industries, and associated institutions (e.g., universities, standards
agencies, trade associations) in a particular field that compete but also
cooperate."3 The key components of a cluster or innovation ecosystem4
have more recently been summarized by a leading policymaker as: "A
talent pool that connects across disciplines; [a]n `innovation infrastruc-
ture' with physical facilities; [a] skilled workforce; [a]ccess to capital; and
[a] support system that can shepherd promising innovations through the
so-called `valley of death.' "5 While the expanding literature has begun
exploring the human capital components of innovation ecosystems, little


1 See, e.g., U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Remarks at Innovation Clusters

Conference, the Brookings Institution (Sept. 23, 2010) (Prepared remarks of Sec'y
of Commerce, Gary Locke).
2 Michael Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations (New York, NY,

U.S.A.: Free Press, 1990)
3 Michael Porter, Location, Competition, And Economic Development: Local

Clusters In ...