Innovation is at the heart of economic growth and development. It is through
innovation that new
products are brought to market, new production processes developed and
organizational change
realized. Given existing cross-industry variations in structure,
competitiveness and maturity, it is
reasonable to expect that firms in different industries will innovate for
different reasons, in different
ways and with different results. This report focuses on how the innovation
activities of firms in
three dynamic service industries are conditioned by their different
environments.
Through an understanding of what competitive pressures come into play and
how these pressures
affect the type of innovation that is performed, Innovation in dynamic
service industries goes
some way in illustrating how innovation regimes differ substantially, and
quite logically, from one
industry to another.
This is the fifth in the series of publications on innovation and
technological change in Canada.
One of the earlier studies investigated the type of innovation taking
place in the manufacturing
sector (Baldwin and Da Pont, Innovation in Canadian manufacturing
enterprises, Catalogue No.
88-513-XPB). Two others focused on advanced manufacturing technologies.
The first (Baldwin and
Sabourin, Technology adoption in Canadian manufacturing, Catalogue No.
88-512-XPB) outlined
the intensity of use of these technologies. The second (Baldwin, Sabourin,
and Rafiquzzaman,
Benefits and problems associated with technology adoption, Catalogue No.
88-514-XPE)
investigated the determinants of adoption. Another study (Baldwin,
Innovation and intellectual
property, Catalogue No. 88-515-XPE) examined how innovative firms protect
their intellectual
property after they have innovated.
