David Doloreux Launches Comparative Study of Innovation Practices in Canada and France

David Doloreux will lead a study examining the relationships between territory, innovation and economic development within the manufacturing and service sectors through a $40,000 grant from the International Research Acceleration Program and the Telfer School of Management. The researchers will draw on emerging theories of innovation in a comparative study of innovation practices in different regions in Canada and France. The project is titled, “Les logiques spatiales de l’innovation: regards croisés sur le Canada et la France.”

Dr. Doloreux, a Full Professor and the Research Chair in Canadian Francophonie at the Telfer School, will work with colleagues from l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)–Centre Urbanisation Culture Société and Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV in France. The researchers will develop an analytical framework enabling them to evaluate whether the lessons drawn from Canadian cases can be applied to France, and vice-versa. As such, the results are expected to have an important public policy impact.

The recent literature has explored innovation systems, institutional supports, and resources at the level of the region to explain the capacity of firms to innovate. But it has also focused on the pivotal role of connectedness to larger networks in terms of transportation and communication links to industrial hubs. This study will bring together these two complimentary strands in the research. The team will base their analyses on unique data from the Canadian “Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy” and its equivalent in France.