Over the last 20 years there are 4 key lessons that have emerged from research on innovation:

• The first lesson is that innovation is a social process (Wolfe 2009) or simply put “firms do not innovate in isolation” (Nauwelaers 2011: 468). It’s messy!
• Second is the emphasis placed on interaction and learning between a wide variety of innovation stakeholders from firms and postsecondary institutions to government agencies and civil society.
• Related to this is the importance of institutions and infrastructure to support innovation.
• And the final lesson is that geography or place matters as firms and entrepreneurs become attached to particular regions due to place-based assets that have a direct impact on a region’s competitive advantage

Powerpoint presentation by Heather Hall, PHD, Assistant Professor of the University of Waterloo with key lessons emerging from innovation research about ways we can support innovation with an example from Northern Ontario and with a quick introduction to disruptive innovation.