Technology, Market and Company Journeys: How Can We Help Them Succeed? - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 194

the refinement of the range of business development programmes on offer which
includes pre, full and post incubation activities; and the integration of these
activities on a larger scale across a wider physical region by influencing the key
components in the supply chain that link the ideas to the market.
Although these changes may have occurred without the presence of science and
technology parks the value of these physical assets is they create a focal point that,
if effectively managed, helps to provide the three critical stakeholders of business,
knowledge generators and government with an environment in which they can
express their own value propositions in an attempt to create new innovation led
businesses.
The value propositions for each of these stakeholders in this process vary
significantly but it is the combination of these different interests that give to
science parks both their importance as projects and the capacity to continue to
evolve and push the frontiers of their influence.
Details of these different value propositions broadly reflect economic devel-
opment for government, gaining a competitive advantage for tenants, and tech-
nology and knowledge transfer for hosts.
To deliver these propositions governments have tended to develop macro
business, technology and social environments that support innovation, businesses
have looked to find technologies and skills that are beyond technology readiness
levels 6 and generators of knowledge have begun to adapt to supply the skills and
technology that are demanded by business.
2 Innovation
Innovation dominates much of the discussion, literature and policies about eco-
nomic development. The importance of this process is the direct impact it has on
the performance of firms or social institutions OECD ( 2005 ).
In this context innovation can range from small changes which are incremental
in nature but still lead to a commercial organisation maintaining a competitive
advantage, through changes which are disruptive which can be very damaging to
some industries while launching others. It is also important to recognise that
innovation can have a regional context and can be used to describe the introduction
of new ideas to a region or country, which may already be prevalent in others and
in some instances, can be used as a foundation for autarky. Although the term
innovation is most often applied to commercial success arising from technology it
can also be achieved in relation to trades and services and changes in government
that can lead to significant wealth creation.
The response to these changes or disruptive influences require those industries
under threat to themselves innovate in order to survive. Although the need to
innovate is widely accepted as important for the necessary business practices that
encourage successful execution of the process needs to be widely adopted.