Innovation within the Context of Local Economic Development and Planning: Perspectives of City Practitioners

Selina Phan, Evan Cleave and Godwin Arku
Additional contact information
Selina Phan: Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Evan Cleave: Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Ryerson University, Canada
Godwin Arku: Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, Canada

Urban Planning, 2020, vol. 5, issue 3, 364-377

Abstract: Although innovation is a major theme in current local economic development and planning, there is a considerable uncertainty of what the concept specifically means, measured, and how outcomes are identified. To date, no study has investigated this glaring gap in scholarship. To address this gap, we interviewed economic development practitioners across cities in Ontario to identify and clarify how they define, apply, and measure innovation within their cities’ economic development strategies. Practitioners indicate that innovation plays a key role in their cities’ economic development strategy, demonstrating the importance of the concept within local governments. Additionally, it is clear that local governments are key facilitators of innovation. While many cities claim to have some form of innovation in their economic development strategies, a wide range of framings and approaches to innovation exist. Cities may not be taking the most efficient approach to fostering local innovation, which is critical with the rise of knowledge-based economic development.

Keywords: cities; economic development; innovation; Ontario; policy; practitioners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/3100 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:urbpla:v5:y:2020:i:3:p:364-377

DOI: 10.17645/up.v5i3.3100

Access Statistics for this article

Urban Planning is currently edited by Tiago Cardoso

More articles in Urban Planning from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().