ABSTRACT

The advancement of industrial, innovation-related economic policies such as Industry 4.0 and the advanced digitalization of production play an increasingly important role in fulfilling economic objectives in both Canada and the United States. There are a variety of ways in which such industrial-related policy approaches can be developed and implemented. Varying aspects of industrial and economic innovation often occur within a regional context, which can change policy is developed and implemented, dramatically and with little warning. This paper applies a case-based approach to examine enabling and constraining factors of regional innovation policy in two cases - Ontario, Canada and Massachusetts, US. Moving beyond a linear conception of regional innovation, this research explores how policies and modalities for collaboration can facilitate Industry 4.0 and related innovation ecosystems. Our analysis suggests that regional innovation impact is influenced through four principal factors: industrial clusters; context; collaborative synergies; and network intermediaries. Additional research could focus on an expanded case examination of the relationship between top-down policy approaches and the operation of regional innovation ecosystems coupled with bottom-up market- and stakeholderdriven analytic approaches.

摘要

工业 4.0 和先进的生产数字化等工业、创新相关经济政策的推进在实现加拿大和美国的经济目标方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。可以通过多种方式制定和实施此类与产业相关的政策方法。工业和经济创新的不同方面通常发生在区域背景下，这可能会在几乎没有警告的情况下显着改变政策的制定和实施。本文采用基于案例的方法来研究两个案例——加拿大安大略省和美国马萨诸塞州——区域创新政策的促成因素和制约因素。超越区域创新的线性概念，这项研究探讨了合作的政策和方式如何促进工业 4.0 和相关创新生态系统。我们的分析表明，区域创新影响受四个主要因素的影响：产业集群；语境; 协同增效作用；和网络中介。其他研究可以侧重于对自上而下的政策方法与区域创新生态系统运作之间关系的扩展案例研究，以及自下而上的市场和利益相关者驱动的分析方法。