Innovation and Production Ecosystems

Conclusion

The subject studied in this work is complex and extensive. Clusters are a form of organization of economic activity which have sprung up in many countries, responding to the significance of failures in the market and to the often limited capacity of market signals (in the traditional sense of the term) to orient technico-economic development.

Innovation today has a pronounced interactive bent. It involves the intervention of multiple actors, between whom collaborations may be organized, develop and break down in accordance with the problems involved and the skills required. The increasing importance of inter-organizational collaboration, notably between private companies and university institutions, confirms the central role of networks in innovation processes. Innovation and production ecosystems appear to respond to this need. We also need to recognize the shift that has taken place in the respective responsibilities of actors involved in innovation processes.

As the MIT report [MIT 13] highlights, public policies draw legitimacy from the fact that big businesses have, in the past, provided public goods for their wider industrial environments in the form of research spillover, training and the diffusion of new technologies to their suppliers, while exerting pressure on the state and regional authorities to invest in infrastructure. This spillover provides complementary capacities which may be used by other producers in the region, even if they did not participate ...