Intelligent Cities

Innovation, Knowledge Systems and Digital Spaces

Nicos Komninos

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135159290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

At the turn of the century some cities and regions in Europe, Japan and the USA, displayed an exceptional capacity to incubate and develop new knowledge and innovations. The favourable environment for research, technology and innovation created in these areas was not immediately obvious, yet it was of great significance for a development based on knowledge, learning, and innovation. Intelligent Cities focuses on these environments of innovation, and the major models (technopoles, innovating regions, intelligent cities) for creating an environment-supporting technology, innovation, learning, and knowledge-based development.
The introduction and the first chapter deal with innovation as an environmental condition, and with the geography and typology of islands of innovation. The next three parts focus on the theoretical paradigms and the planning models of the 'industrial district', the innovating region', and the 'intelligent city', which offer three alternative ways to create an environment of innovation.

1Innovation is an Island

Over the past twenty years industrial countries have put considerable effort into research and technological development in order to meet the challenges of globalization. Since the Western world has chosen technological innovation as the basic competitive advantage in the global economy, it has led to extensive mobilization of scientific and technological knowledge in the search for solutions to problems of production and development. However, despite the pre-eminent position of technological innovation in the contemporary world, our knowledge of its processes and mechanisms is largely axiomatic and empirical. It is based, on the one hand, on the concept of innovation as the commercial and productive exploitation of science and technology, and on the other, on best practice and examples of organizations that have developed successful technological innovations.

In this chapter we argue that technological innovation is an environmental condition. Innovation flows from an environment rich in factors and mechanisms facilitating the conversion of scientific knowledge into products and services. Such a favourable environment for technological innovation has been created in a whole series of areas, including industrial districts, technopoles, innovative regions, and intelligent cities, in which conditions of collaboration and collective ingenuity reinforce the capabilities of established organizations and enterprises. The environment of innovation is characterized by specific functions, among which research and development, technology transfer, networking, and technological cooperation dominate.

Innovation and the R&D Lab

The term ‘innovation’, notes the Green Paper on Innovation, is somewhat equivocal, for it designates both a process and its result. It signifies the transformation of scientific and technological knowledge into products and services, and in this sense the term describes a process (European Commission 1996a). However, when the word innovation designates a new product, then the emphasis is on the result of the process. This double meaning is a source of misunderstandings, the most common of which is confusion between the factors that promote innovation, such as research and development (R&D), technology purchase, international technological cooperation, funding, and their result, that is, a new product, a new method, a new service.

In some surveys, for instance, the enterprises that buy or sell technology are considered innovative, a definition that creates confusion between a cause (purchase of technology) and its result (the renewal of products and processes, being innovative).¹The same perplexity is found in assessments of the regional technology gap, measuring the intensity of efforts devoted to R&D and technology, although these efforts do not necessarily mean that a region or organization spending more on research is by definition more innovative. This indeed is the criticism of the linear model of innovation. It is not sufficient to increase the intensity of R&D in order to trigger the process and increase the potential for innovation. Many experiences from regional innovation strategies show that a critical parameter in the innovation process is not the size of the regional research budget, but the institutional and social web permitting the transformation of scientific knowledge into new products and processes.

It is important to remember at this point that technological innovation is the transformation within an organization (enterprise, service organization, research laboratory) of:

Production processes (through information technology, automation, energy saving systems);

Products (new products and services, new product models, improved quality, shorter life cycle of products); and

Organization (flexibility, just-in-time delivery systems, lean production, networks, optimization of producer-supplier relations, etc.).

The renewal of products and production processes can be radical or incremental. It is radical when it has to do with the development of a new technology or the initial commercial exploitation of a new product, and it is incremental when it concerns the adoption of a technology that is considered ‘good practice’ and that is already being implemented in more advanced segments within a productive sector or region. In the first instance we have a generic innovation, whereas the second is innovation on the level of the specific organization. This distinction opens the door of innovation to all those organizations that improve their production up to the level of the best practice. Innovation does not concern only the best enterprises and organizations that carry out original research and develop original products, but includes technology transfer and dissemination, in addition to the development of new products and technologies.

With the globalization of economies and competition, innovation has become the most important factor in development, employment, and prosperity. Innovation in methods and processes permits increased productivity, energy saving, ergonomic optimization, better efficiency and reliability in production. Innovation in products and services permits differentiation from competing products, opens new markets, and improves the competitiveness of the company. Innovation in organizations permits the better use of human resources, flexibility, and it is usually a precondition for the successful implementation of new products and processes. Despite this logical systematization, innovation is difficult to measure. If, for example, one organization develops one new product a year and another develops three in that year, does that mean the second is more innovative than the first? Probably not. Innovation is not only about the number of new products. We have to measure the effort made to develop them and the results in terms of growth and employment. This goes back to expenditure on R&D, to the precondition rather than the result of the innovation. But as mentioned, expenditure on R&D does not always lead to a successful innovation. Without a global theory of the innovation process, this vicious circle among causes and results just goes on repeating itself.

The R&D Lab

In the rapid change and innovation of products, production technologies, and management methods, a number of factors come into play. Critical among them is research and development, and the use of scientific and technical knowledge for commercial purposes. Research capacity, however, is not sufficient for innovation. The latter also requires appropriate managerial support, funding, market promotion, and the collaboration with technology providers, suppliers, and other producers.

Until the 1980s, the process of innovation had been mainly conceived within the framework of the research laboratory of a large company (Alison 1969). Let us assume, for example, writes Donald Schon, that a researcher or engineer working in a lab discovers a new quality in some material or describes a new mechanical set-up (Schon 1969).

The next step is to announce the discovery to his director and secure approval for further research. Now he will look into the question of intellectual property, to see whether an existing patent covers his discovery, and analyse in greater detail the problems of production and the probable market for the new product. Up to this point the investment in time and resources is relatively small.

If this first enquiry has a positive result, the head of the R&D division will present the results to the senior management of the company, and secure approval for funding for a full-scale development plan.

The technical characteristics and manufacturing problems of the new product are studied in detail on the basis of this plan, and a market research study will be carried out into sectors related to the expected product. The company will proceed with its full-scale research into patent rights and will explore the possibility of later competition from similar products. This stage may last up to six months, requires considerable outlays and concludes with the manufacture of the prototype.

Now the company can submit detailed plans for patenting and organize a pilot production line. Here a new series of problems will appear, relating to large-scale production, and the technical characteristics of the product will be modified accordingly. On account of the size of the pilot application, changes in the production process are more costly. The quality of the product is checked, and selected users chosen to test and evaluate it.

Everything is now ready for full-scale production, combined with marketing strategy. Mass production starts up, with numerous associated problems of reliability and quality, which will be solved in the course of production and in future improvements to the model.

It is obvious that the example describes in simplified form, the innovation process in the large (usually multinational) mass production companies that flourished in the second half of the twentieth century. It outlines the several stages in the innovation process: its origin in the R&D division, the securing of a budget from the administration, the support from the marketing division, the manufacture of prototypes and the pilot production and quality test run (Table 1.1). At each step, the innovation plan risks being dropped if cost, market, and technical problems appear to be insuperable.

Innovation, however, is not a linear process that ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• INTRODUCTION Origins, Structure and Contents
• CHAPTER 1 Innovation is an Island
• PART I Technopoles and Science Parks: Innovation as Spatial Proximity
• PART II Innovating Regions: Innovation as an Institution
• PART III Intelligent Cities: Islands of Innovation meet the Digital World
• Notes
• References
• Index