1. Lessons from Innovation Boulevard:
A case study of a regional innovation ecosystem to support the
development of technologies in health & aging
Presentation to CAG 2016
Josephine McMurray, PhD,
Heather McNeil, PhD (Cand.),
Andrew Sixsmith, PhD,
Paul Stolee, PhD,
Heidi Sveistrup, PhD
2. Acknowledgements
• AGE-WELL is a federally funded Network of Centres of
Excellence accelerating innovation and technologies to
improve aging
• We are grateful for the generosity of the case study
participants
• The DRiVE (Developing Regional health InnoVation
Ecosystems) Project is an AGE-WELL funded research study
that explores how health and age technology innovation can
be facilitated through regional partnership
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3. Our program of research
• Systematic literature review of regional innovation
systems/ecosystems
• Development of a RHIE conceptual and theoretic model
• Case studies of 5 health innovation entities
• Taxonomy of innovation entities
• Theory of action model to guide the development of
RHIE’s
• Developmental evaluation, performance measurement
best practices
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6. What is Innovation Boulevard?
• Regional health innovation ecosystem
located in Surrey, B.C.
• Established in 2013 - address regional
economic and social challenges
• City-led initiative with Simon Fraser
University, Fraser Valley Health Authority
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9. Theoretical lens
• Quadruple Innovation Helix (Arnkin, 2010;
Carayannis & Rakhmatullin, 2014)
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• Collaboration Theory (Grey, 1985)
to examine the iterative process of
problem solving (problem setting,
direction setting and structuring)
that defines a successful
collaboration (Fig.2) Fig 2. Collaborative Analytic Model –
Iterative problem-solving
11. Collaboration Life-Cycle
• IB appears to be
following the
classic stages of a
collaboration life-
cycle
• Useful guide for
future action
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Fig 3. The Collaboration Life-Cycle
(Williams, Merriman &
Morris, 2016)
12. Issue Phase
Identify an
issue to solve &
recognize need
for multi-
stakeholder
involvement
“It wasn't about innovation, it was about bringing people
together. It was about the collaboration of different groups and
different types of people. We initially embarked upon the
health sector.” - Government
“I mean 95 languages are spoken. We've got the largest
population per capita of kids under the age of 19. We're from
1,000 to 1,200 people moving into the city each and every
month. There's a lot of things going on there.” - Government
“Your ability to deliver quality services improves dramatically
with the introduction of teaching, training, and research into
the fabric of your organization.” - Health System
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13. Assembly & Structure Phase
Growth, building
a network &
adding resources,
defining goals,
defining roles, &
coordinating
work
“So the main committee has a number of subcommittees,
and those subcommittees, uh, I would say there are, there
are 3 to do with, um, kind of, uh, uh, domains within
health, and then there's a bunch of others.” - Industry
“We knew that we had a faculty of health and that we do
a lot of experiential learning. She said, "Why don't we sit
down, take a look at whether this might be a good fit or
not?” - University
[In an}]ideal world if we are …successful, at one point it
will be financially independent. Basically, that whatever
Innovation Boulevard brings in from government or private
sources, or whatever; it's paying for the operation.
- University
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14. Productivity Phase
Optimal resources
to carry out
primary focus.
Key functions:
Communication,
Learning,
Decision-making,
and Managing
Stability
“It certainly helps the recruitment and retention young often
young people not just clinical people but, you know, a-
academics from every walk of life ‘.” - Health System
“That's their slogan, the engaged university, and they are, we
interact with SFU on a daily basis that creates constant cross
pollination between the city and SFU on a number of...”
- Government
“We get exposure to a very wide range of key stakeholders in
healthcare outside of the hospital environment…it gives us
additional insight into what might be coming, in terms of
healthcare changes in policy, more of an insight into community
healthcare.” - Industry
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15. Conclusions
• Collaboration Theory is an appropriate lens to
retrospectively & prospectively analyse IB’s evolution
• Success at this stage defined by ability to
communicate, make decisions collectively, work
through differences and resolve conflicts in the
context of the shared vision.
• Threats to stability going forward - rapid growth,
inability to manage change, available human and
financial resources
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16. • Josephine McMurray, PhD
• Assistant Professor, Lazaridis School of Business & Economics
• Wilfrid Laurier University
• jmcmurray@wlu.ca
• +01.1.519.242.7477
• @AgeWell_DRiVE
• www.drive-health-ecosystems.com
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Notes de l'éditeur
Technological innovation is an emerging area that may support the health and well-being of older adults. Currently, however the highly regulated health care domain in Canada, with its modest adoption of digital exchange technology (McMurray 2013; McMurray et al. 2013) presents many challenges for entrepreneurs and can result in intellectual property generated in Canada being implemented elsewhere (Hall & Bagchi-Sen, 2002). Regional innovation ecosystems can provide a response to this through an opportunity for more agile reactions to shifting technology and market conditions. AGE-WELL is a pan-Canadian network working to stimulate technological innovation that benefits older adults. As part of the DRiVE study of AGE-WELL, this project involved an in-depth exploration of regional health innovation ecosystems (RHIEs). A systematic literature review was conducted to examine discrete endogenous and exogenous factors that affect the development of RHIEs globally. Articles and material in English and French from scholarly and grey literature were reviewed. Results revealed factors that influence the development of RHIEs and contributed to the development of an RHIE taxonomy. As a first phase of DRiVE, this project has identified many of the facilitators and barriers that impact RHIE development. The next phases of DRiVE will examine success factors and performance metrics, and build on our understanding of how best to build capacity for to-market technologies that will directly impact the quality of life and improved wellbeing of older adults.
We are particularly fascinated with how the development of regional innovation ecosystems (RIEs) and clusters to encourage entrepreneurial activity, the development of innovative new products, and growth in local economies is well documented in the literature (Cooke, 2001), has been embraced in the biomed and pharma sectors through networked clusters, but generally has not been embraced by the health and aging sectors (McMurray et al., in progress).
This is the first of our case study reports that is going for publication
The need for a regional initiative aimed at leveraging the local knowledge sector, attracting anchor industries in three key industries, and recruiting and producing highly qualified personnel, as key to improving regional economic and social challenges.
At the time of our case study it encompassed one sq mile between the city centre, simon fraser university and surrey memorial hospital
During the study period the ecosystem consisted of the regional health authority and hospital foundation, three universities & a technical institute, municipal, provincial and federal governments, 50 health tech and 180 health services companies & numerous international partnerships.
For our initial analysis of study data we use the Quadruple Innovation Helix (Arnkin, 2010; Carayannis & Rakhmatullin, 2014) that posits a dynamic and enmeshed model of a regional knowledge economy that includes Government, Universities, Industry & Civic Society, and add a fifth helix, the Health System, to account for the unique and complex influence this sector factors has over health and aging technology development & adoption.
Collaboration is defined as the pooling of resources between two or more stakeholders with no relevant prior agreement, to solve a ‘wicked’ problem (Grey, 1985). We use Collaboration Theory to examine the iterative process of problem solving (problem setting, direction setting and structuring) that defines a successful collaboration (Fig.2)
At some point in a collaboration, the unit of analysis changes from inter-organizational to intra-organizational – from ‘them’ to ‘us’ – and organization life-cycle theory may apply. Williams, Merriman & Morris (2016) suggest 6 phases (3 relevant to this case study period):
Issue – identify an issue to solve & recognize need for multi-stakeholder involvement
Assembly & Structure – focussed on growth, building a network and adding resources, defining goals, defining roles, and coordinating work
Productivity – optimal staff & resources to carry out primary focus. Key functions during this phase are: Communication, Learning, Decision-making, and Managing Stability
At some point along the Productivity Phase there will inevitably be points of departure that will transition the collaboration through to another stage. This ecological view suggests that, as with firms, all will eventually decline and dissipate, or be rejuventated in a different form. In the organizational literature, we see movement along the lifecycle is often preceded by a crisis or time of turmoil. Our work in this area with innovation hubs is in progress, but there are indications that the productivity stage has other identifiable sub-stages
The issues that were identified included regional economic and social development in one of the fastest growing, most racially diverse communities in Canada.
Preliminary analysis of the Surrey Innovation Boulevard RHIE suggests that Collaboration Theory is an appropriate lens by which to retrospectively analyse its evolution as a start-up enterprise and as a prospective tool to anticipate and guide its progress through its institutional lifecycle. During the case study period of interest, IB identified challenges in the heath system, regional economic and social development, a diverse and growing population and identified health and aging technology innovation as a potential vehicle to address these issues. The Productivity Phase of the Life Cycle is the most complex – communication is critical to maintaining a common purpose and transparency, and learning through information sharing and trial and error (Williams, Merriman & Morris, 2016). Collaboration success at this stage is critically defined by its ability to make decisions collectively, work through differences and resolve conflicts in the context of the shared vision. Threats to stability going forward might include rapid growth, inability to manage change, available human and financial resources