Absorptive Capacity in Practice-Based Innovation Activities: the Case of Lahti Region, Finland

As a consequence of for example agglomeration economies, features such as good reputation and highly-skilled labour force tend to accumulate in university regions. The accumulation of highly-skilled labour and high research intensity secure a continuous flow of “raw-material†for innovations in the knowledge-based economy. However, in the regions lacking a university it is vitally important to find other ways of increasing innovation activity. Through implementation of non-linear innovation activity which combines knowledge of normal practice-based activities and science-based research, a region can create radically new perspectives of operating. The new theories of innovation suggest that a great potential of innovation exists in the structural holes and weak links of the innovation system. The new sources of innovation set demands for the innovating partners. In order to exploit the hidden potential in the innovation system the actors of the region must possess, for example, high absorptive capacity, tolerance for diversification and especially the bridging elements of social capital. The Lahti Region in Finland is one of the regions lacking strong regional research base. Determined to create a new source of competitive advantage, the Lahti Region is heading towards a vision of being a top region in promoting practice-based innovation activities. Therefore, the region has created a new policy framework to achieve the vision: network-facilitating innovation policy. The policy aims to promote networked innovation processes especially by exploiting the potential of the structural holes of the innovation system and linking the research-based knowledge from neighbouring strong research centres in the regional innovation processes. This paper examines the readiness of the regional actors to face the demands of the new policy framework. The case study is a compilation of 12 interviews of the key persons in the regional development field and a survey study among representatives of companies, educational and research organizations as well as public organizations.

Dynamics of knowledge base complexity: an inquiry into oil producing countries’ struggle to build innovation capabilities

According to conventional wisdom, the petroleum industry is classified as a ‘resource based’ and ‘mature’ industry. It is subject to the ‘resource curse’ thesis, exhausted of ‘technological opportunities’ with limited capacity for knowledge based economic growth. This study questions the adequacy of this line of reasoning. Exploring the technological complexity of the sector, a complementary argument is presented. We show that the sector has recently experienced a surge in ‘technological opportunities’. However the ‘systemic complexity of the knowledge base’ has constrained many oil producing countries’ enjoyment of these opportunities. This view highlights the role of dynamics of knowledge base complexity as an important ‘cognitive’ barrier for building innovation capabilities in endowed countries. This study is based on the extension of a ‘Sectoral Innovation Systems’ approach, highlighting the role of technological regimes in catch-up possibilities and strategies. Knowledge base complexity is explored as an under-researched element of technological regimes. The research contributes in three ways. First, it introduces a dynamic and three-dimensional view of knowledge base complexity at the conceptual level, and hypothesizes its implication for patterns of innovation and catch-up processes. Second, a quantitative methodology is developed to examine the proposed hypotheses. Third, the conceptual and methodological suggestions are empirically examined in the context of upstream petroleum industry. The findings propose that the sector has gone through phases of transformation and reconfiguration. The sector’s technological regime over the most recent period experienced high opportunities combined with rising systemic complexity of the knowledge base. We show that this trend in technological regimes is associated with shift of the sector from Schumpeter Mark I to II and with the emergence of major Integrated Service Companies as new system integrators coping with rising systemic complexity. We also observe that rising systemic complexity is associated with slow down and halt of geographical dispersion of innovation. The sector-wide cumulativeness stemming from systemic complexity creates high cognitive barriers to entry for latecomers. The very scarce examples of catch-up in a few advanced oil producing countries suggest that high innovation opportunities in complex industries are open mostly to countries with both advanced national innovation systems and accumulated production experience. For latecomer countries to benefit, their industrial policy needs to cope with increasing systemic complexity, mitigating its coordination costs and facilitating the integration of distributed catch-up processes. This highlights the key role of ‘late comer systems integrators’ for successful catch-up

Early Learning Innovation Fund Evaluation Final Report

This is a formative evaluation of the Hewlett Foundation's Early Learning Innovation Fund that began in 2011 as part of the Quality Education in Developing Countries (QEDC) initiative.  The Fund has four overarching objectives, which are to: promote promising approaches to improve children's learning; strengthen the capacity of organizations implementing those approaches; strengthen those organizations' networks and ownership; and grow 20 percent of implementing organizations into significant players in the education sector. The Fund's original design was to create a "pipeline" of innovative approaches to improve learning outcomes, with the assumption that donors and partners would adopt the most successful ones. A defining feature of the Fund was that it delivered assistance through two intermediary support organizations (ISOs), rather than providing funds directly to implementing organizations. Through an open solicitation process, the Hewlett Foundation selected Firelight Foundation and TrustAfrica to manage the Fund. Firelight Foundation, based in California, was founded in 1999 with a mission to channel resources to community-based organizations (CBOs) working to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families in Africa. It supports 12 implementing organizations in Tanzania for the Fund. TrustAfrica, based in Dakar, Senegal, is a convener that seeks to strengthen African-led initiatives addressing some of the continent's most difficult challenges. The Fund was its first experience working specifically with early learning and childhood development organizations. Under the Fund, it supported 16 such organizations: one in Mali and five each in Senegal, Uganda and Kenya. At the end of 2014, the Hewlett Foundation commissioned Management Systems International (MSI) to conduct a mid-term evaluation assessing the implementation of the Fund exploring the extent to which it achieved intended outcomes and any factors that had limited or enabled its achievements. It analyzed the support that the ISOs provided to their implementing organizations, with specific focus on monitoring and evaluation (M&E). The evaluation included an audit of the implementing organizations' M&E systems and a review of the feasibility of compiling data collected to support an impact evaluation. Finally, the Foundation and the ISOs hoped that this evaluation would reveal the most promising innovations and inform planning for Phase II of the Fund. The evaluation findings sought to inform the Hewlett Foundation and other donors interested in supporting intermediary grant-makers, early learning innovations and the expansion of innovations. TrustAfrica and Firelight Foundation provided input to the evaluation's scope of work. Mid-term evaluation reports for each ISO provided findings about their management of the Fund's Phase I and recommendations for Phase II. This final evaluation report will inform donors, ISOs and other implementing organizations about the best approaches to support promising early learning innovations and their expansion. The full report outlines findings common across both ISOs' experience and includes recommendations in four key areas: adequate time; appropriate capacity building; advocacy and scaling up; and evaluating and documenting innovations. Overall, both Firelight Foundation and TrustAfrica supported a number of effective innovations working through committed and largely competent implementing organizations. The program's open-ended nature avoided being prescriptive in its approach, but based on the lessons learned in this evaluation and the broader literature, the Hewlett Foundation and other donors could have offered more guidance to ISOs to avoid the need to continually relearn some lessons. For example, over the evaluation period, it became increasingly evident that the current context demands more focused advance planning to measure impact on beneficiaries and other stakeholders and a more concrete approach to promoting and resourcing potential scale-up. The main findings from the evaluation and recommendations are summarized here

A legacy handbook for innovation

Legacy Handbook reviewing emda's experience of innovation activity. Identifies key achievements and draws out lessons learned that may be relevant to successor bodies active in this area

Catalyzing Change in Secondary Education in Africa and India

Mathematica Policy Research started working with the PSIPSE in late 2014 as its learning partner. In this brief, the organisations share their independent analysis of the PSIPSE approach to effecting change in secondary education—starting with the partnership's theory of change, countries of focus, and interventions supported. They end by presenting the monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework developed for the PSIPSE and distilling some implications of an analysis for the future

Scaling Up Inclusive Business -- Solutions to Overcome Internal Barriers

Sustainability challenges including poverty, social unrest, climate change and environmental degradation have become ever more urgent. Business has the technology, innovation capacity, resources, and skills to play a key role in providing the radical solutions the world desperately needs.The objective of this brief is to kick off greater dialogue on the internal barriers companies face along the pathway to scale in inclusive business and how to overcome them. Building on the hands-on experience of businesses active in this space and the valuable insights of experts, the following pages identify some of the most common internal barriers and the solutions that leading companies are using to tackle them. We gained new insights by looking at the work of thirteen companies: CEMEX, Grundfos, Grupo Corona, ITC Ltd., Lafarge, Masisa, Nestlé, Novartis, Novozymes, SABMiller, Schneider Electric, The Coca-Cola Company, and Vodafone. We also interviewed two leading academics doing research in this area, Cornell University's Erik Simanis (United States) and Universidad de los Andes' Ezequiel Reficco (Colombia)