Greater Whitsunday Region: Regional innovation benchmark research report: 2020-2021

Margarietha J de Villiers Scheepers; Saskia de Klerk; Chad Renando; Martie-Louise Verreynne

doi:10.25907/00112

This report summarises the findings of the 2020-2021 Mackay, Isaac, Whitsunday (MIW) regional innovation survey conducted by University of the Sunshine Coast, on behalf of Greater Whitsunday Alliance. 1) It measures businesses' innovation activity across the MIW region. The innovativeness of MIW firms is compared against 2019 and 2014 innovation data for Queensland and Australian firms. 2) Five illustrative case studies reflect how an entrepreneurial mindset support businesses to innovate, even during times of uncertainty. 3) Innovation ecosystem resilience is assessed on economic, social and institutional dimensions to determine how community resources are used and leveraged to enable the business community and supporting organisations to thrive in dynamic environments characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability. The method used to assess regional innovation is by using the rigourous, internationally recognised innovation measurement framework, developed by Cambridge University to collect data from 97 firms in the MIW region in 2021, compared against an existing dataset. The innovation case studies were compiled based on interviews and secondary data, while the community resilience of the regional innovation ecosystem was based on economic, social and institutional dimensions sourcing data from embedded ecosystem role-players as experts. The data revealed that 80% of MIW innovators had businesses between 3 to 10 years old, compared to 9.1% of Queensland innovator businesses between 3 to 10 years old. These MIW innovators were likely to have a social media strategy, mobile enabled website and innovation strategy, while 26.7% of MIW innovators embraced fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies for cyber-physical systems, using automated business intelligence systems, data integration and smart technologies. Case study highlights emphasise that innovators focus on a strategic goal of building a business model rather than a product and developing an intellectual property protection strategy. Innovators were likely to implement process innovations that bring about significant productivity improvements. They also displayed a high level of awareness of the innovation process incorporating continuous learning, iteration and improvement, involving employees in the process. In tough times, meticulous attention to cost and cash management is needed and keeping close to customers who provide a valuable source of innovation opportunities. The ecosystem resilience assessment reveals that entrepreneurship support, advocacy for entrepreneurship and the COVID-19 response in the MIW region is centralised among several key roles of the economic development organisation, government, and peak body roles. Trust and internal connection and collaboration were distributed among various roles in the MIW region. Joint leadership and coordination are needed within regional communities to fulfil critical & innovation ecosystem functions in three ways. First to leverage regional strengths by allocating roles that require specialised knowledge and skills, second to facilitate coordination between roles, and finally to ensure measurement and monitoring of ecosystem health and priorities. External connections and collaboration can bring, should be ensured. Low ratings of the investor role reflect the potential need to develop this role and increase the awareness of this role to investable entrepreneurial opportunities. A sustainable model is needed to support the incubator role to better support early stage, innovation driven entrepreneurs’ access to knowledge, networks and seed funds. Ratings reflect a low perceived awareness and integration of school-based entrepreneurial programs. Low perceived ratings of established firm involvement in the innovation ecosystem provide opportunities for engagement, connection and collaboration. Professional services provide significant entrepreneurship support for MIW businesses and are perceived trustworthy, thus should be involved in building local innovation capacity.

Greater Whitsunday Region: Regional innovation benchmark research report: 2020-2021

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