Waikato regional economic profile - Waikato Regional Council

11 Innovation system11.1 SummaryAs noted earlier, innovation is a central component of the Government’s economicstrategy. The OECD Oslo Manual 391 identifies four types of innovation as outlined intable 17 below.Table 17: OECD types and definitions of innovationType of innovationProduct innovationProcess innovationMarketing innovationOrganisational innovationDefinitionA good or service that is new or significantly improved.This includes significant improvements in technicalspecifications, components and materials, incorporatedsoftware, user friendliness and other functionalcharacteristics.A new or significantly improved production or deliverymethod. This includes significantchanges in techniques, equipment and/or software.Significant changes in product design or packaging,product placement, product promotion or pricing.A new organisational method in the firm’s businesspractices, workplace organisation or external relations.A typical regional system of innovation is organised around two interacting groups ofactors: Firms linked to their customers and contractors. These firms have relationshipswith one another that can be both competitive and collaborative and that areprobably as important in stimulating innovation as those they have withknowledge generators. Public research organisations, technology and knowledge transfer agents,educational and skills development organisations.There are two other groups of actors which influence this, namely intermediaryorganisations and regulatory institutions. 392This chapter describes the public research organisations, technology and knowledgetransfer agents, educational and skills development organisations present in theWaikato region and two government agencies that act as intermediaries. It appearsthat the region is well-endowed with tertiary education institutions but these are mostlyconcentrated in the larger urban areas, Hamilton particularly. Overall, the most popularsubject areas are society and culture, management and commerce, education andhealth, according to the latest available data from the Ministry of Education. The largestnumber of industry trainees was in the dairy and meat sector, followed by forestry,electrical and agriculture.Waikato is also well-endowed with research institutions and there is a base ofintellectual property to build on, with several business incubators and science andtechnology parks available to help commercialise this as well as support innovativeentrepreneurs and firms. According to the 2006 Performance Based Research Fundevaluation, the University of Waikato is first in 10 subject areas with more firsts in thesciences than any other university. Although they are outside the Performance-BasedResearch Fund framework, Waikato Institute of Technology and Waiariki Institute of391OECD, Eurostat (2005, p. 48).392OECD (2008, p. 30).Page 126 Doc # 2069885