Containers, facilitators, innovators? The role of cities and city employees in innovation activities
Containers, facilitators, innovators? The role of cities and city employees in innovation activities
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容器、促进者、创新者？
DOI：
10.1177/0969776417691565
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发表时间：
2018
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
T. Inkinen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Makkonen;Maria Merisalo;T. Inkinen
创新一直被认为是经济增长的关键引擎之一，而专利则是研发活动的重要激励因素。然而，特别是在知识产权（IPR）方面，人们对城市如何为区域创新做出贡献知之甚少：它们是容器、促进者还是创新者？这是通过来自27个芬兰城市（赫尔辛基，埃斯波和万塔）的高层部门管理人员的采访经验材料进行调查。结果表明，地方城市政府（LCGs）认为城市作为创新活动的促进者，但也承认有限制（时间限制和缺乏资源）的LCGs的影响，创新环境。尽管如此，如果没有LCG作为创新者的积极作用，许多不一定具有明确市场潜力的公共部门创新（特别是社会创新）就不会产生。伦敦金融城的雇员具有创新性--公共部门似乎缺乏创新，实际上是由于衡量问题倾向于（可专利的）技术创新，而不是LCG更常见的技术创新，即服务和组织类型。因此，LCG可以被视为高度创新的组织。然而，公共部门的创新也存在着一些障碍，如创新活动的成本、缺乏激励机制以及不支持创新的工作文化。最后，研究结果表明，地方政府团体没有真正充分考虑拥有自己知识产权的可能性和潜力;具体而言，应该探索潜在的有利可图的机会。
Innovation has long been considered one of the key engines of economic growth, and patents as important incentives for research and development activity. Particularly in terms of intellectual property rights (IPR), however, little is known about how cities contribute to regional innovation: are they containers, facilitators or innovators? This is investigated here through empirical material derived from 27 interviews with top departmental management in three Finnish cities (Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa). The results show that local city governments (LCGs) consider cities as facilitators of innovation activities but also admit that there are limits (time constraints and lack of resources) to the influence of LCGs over the innovation environment. Still, many of the public sector innovations (especially social innovations) that do not necessarily have a clear market potential would not have been created without the active role of LCGs as innovators. City employees are innovative – the seeming lack of public sector innovation is actually a result of measurement issues that favour (patentable) technological innovations rather than those more common to LCGs, meaning service and organisational types. Therefore, LCGs can be seen as highly innovative organisations. There are, however, barriers to innovation in the public sector, such as the cost of innovation activity, the lack of incentives for it and a working culture that does not support it. Lastly, the results show that LCGs have not really fully considered the possibilities and potential of owning their own IPR; to be specific, potentially lucrative opportunities should be explored.