The Currency of Change
Being young and engaged in a world without rules
A common image of innovation is large firms having business disrupted by a few smart people in a garage striving to make their ‘little dent in the universe’. But effective innovation often happens when people and firms of all sizes cluster in a hot house of competition and collaboration to satisfy demand in new ways. Five thousand years ago people in China clustered together to innovate and manufacture silk, and there are countless other examples.
In the 1990s, Paul Krugman [1] and Michael Porter [2] explained clusters in terms of:
The publicity encouraged cities around the world to identify and grow their own clusters.
Clusters also fail or never ‘catch fire’ and often waste lots of money. The reasons are thought to be due to forces both internal (i.e. obsolete business models, anti-competitive practices, productivity) and external (i.e. demand shifts, investment declines, new innovations elsewhere); Detroit and autos, Glasgow and shipbuilding.
In 2014, the Brookings Institution and others rejuvenated the cluster debate with an emphasis on compact areas within cities full of eclectic creativity, called Innovation Districts (ID) [3]. This work started another wave of cluster-creation, and there are now over 100 IDs.
A systems’ approach provides a fresh lens with the ID seen as a collection of actors (stakeholders) networked into a complex adaptive system
There is no agreement, but this definition is representative; “We define innovation districts to be spatially delineated urban areas in which firms connect with each other and with anchor institutions to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, with active support from policies and programs, effective infrastructure, attractive amenities, and conducively structured economic and social spaces.” [4]
Evidence on ID success and failure is scarce [5]. A systems’ approach provides a fresh lens with the ID seen as a collection of actors (stakeholders) networked into a complex adaptive system [6]. Like raising children or baking a cake, one never really knows the future outcome. Nesta, the UK innovation organization, reflecting on the progress of IDs, suggests cities should match construction with curation, be wary of landowner windfalls, and be rigorous in collecting and analyzing evidence [7].
Successful clusters have industry focus (i.e. London’s finance, Milan’s fashion and Silicon Valley’s technology), whereas many IDs are industry neutral (Barcelona’s @22, Galway City’s ID, and Atlanta’s Tech Square). The clusters grew organically (largely driven by business decisions), whereas the IDs are more synthetic (deliberately driven by planners). Kendall Square, the wonderful ID poster child in Boston is a focused hybrid (with existing stakeholders, new entrepreneurs, and politicians in open collaboration) [8].
What about IDs focused on climate change? The city of Leeds in England [9] majors in sustainable living. In Houston, Greentown Labs is an energy transition incubator. Amsterdam’s doughnut economy strives for sustainable living. All are doing great work and address parts of the recipe for a Climate Change Innovation District. Additionally, as the world looks to Glasgow for COP 26, the city’s green ambition is awesome.
This checklist is for city leaders and other stakeholders wanting to grow an Innovation District to combat climate change. A focused hybrid ID is advocated. A vision is essential but no detailed masterplan, this is a complex adaptive system to be nurtured.
The prizes for a Climate Change Innovation District are enormous: successful firms, jobs, a thriving local economy, and avoiding catastrophic climate change.
The word ecosystem is often used for clusters and what we see in nature may be beautiful but often unseen are ruthless, risky Darwinian struggles for survival via competition and cooperation. The prizes for a Climate Change Innovation District are enormous: successful firms, jobs, a thriving local economy, and avoiding catastrophic climate change. For the guys in the garage with a good idea, when you are done tinkering you might consider relocating to such a city.
If you only have time to follow one link I suggest Radio Boston on the success of Kendall Square (8).
1. Economic Geography
2. M Porter
3. Katz & Wagner 2014
4. Drucker, Kayanan & Renski 2019
5. Questions to consider, 2019
6. Knowledge, Clusters and a CAS Approach, 2015
7. Nesta, G Mulgan 2019
8. How Kendall Square did it, 2018
9. Leeds UK
10. System Leadership
11. Incubators and accelerators https://www.cleantechopen.org/en/ and https://unfccc.int/ttclear/incubators/
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