in content lists or on the content page.The book Sustainable innovation, A New Age of Innovation and Finland’s innovation policy describes the main features of the Finnish innovation system and highlights its main development challenges, drawing partly from the analyses of the writer but also from reports of the international innovation system evaluation panel from 2009. However, the main focus of the book is in the analysis of general principles and new forms of innovation activities. The book launches the concept of sustainable innovation and evaluates the innovation policy in the light of this concept.
The book has its origins in the great changes that have occurred in global economy. Manufacture of goods is being transferred to developing countries with growing markets and less expensive production circumstances. Old industrialised countries are now looking for new competitive edges and sources of wealth. Innovations have taken central stage. Traditional industry needs to be replaced by new products and particularly by new products.
But what should the innovation policy be like, so that the change in economic structure can be implemented? This is the basic question posed by Hautamäki’s book. The book seeks an answer from two directions. One is re-setting the basic objectives of innovation policy and the other analysis of new forms and frameworks of innovation activities.
Innovation policy has been justified by the significance its holds for economic growth. However, economic growth is merely a tool for promoting more important issues. Economic growth accelerates climate change and hastens the end of scarce natural resources. Neither does economic growth always increase the well-being of people, which is more dependent on the quality of life than standard of living. In fact, innovation policy should set promotion of sustainable well-being as its objective. Hautamäki calls innovation that contributes to well-being sustainable innovation. Sustainable innovation policy is not policy aiming at zero growth. The principal challenge for innovations is to be able to create products and services which promote sustainable economic growth without undermining quality of life and equilibrium with environment.
Models and frameworks of innovation activities have changed radically over the last decade. Customers, users, partners and the whole personnel increasingly contribute to innovation activities. There is talk about an open innovation paradigm and other forms of distributed forms of innovations (public innovations such Linux operating system). These kinds of open and interactive innovation activities lead to very different solutions than the traditional technology-based innovation. Finnish innovation policy talks of demand and user oriented innovation. Finnish basic industry is only just now taking its first steps towards participatory innovation.
Another significant change in innovation activities has to do with internationalisation. Competence can be found all over the world. You no longer have to know everything yourself, instead you must be able to cooperate internationally with the best experts in the world. Prahalad and Krishnan describe this global innovation environment with the formula R=G, that is, the resources are global. This formula can also be used for analysing one’s own competitiveness: is a Finnish company, organisation or region a global resource that other regions or companies wish to use.
Two of the wide spectrum of themes in the book are of particular importance to Finnish innovation policy. In order to be born and prosper, innovative companies require a dynamic innovation environment, an ecosystem, with enough risk-funding, competence, workforce and required enterprise services. Innovations are born when players in the ecosystem cooperate and do not shy away from taking risks. According to Hautamäki, in addition to the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland must be able create five to six innovation clusters with world class ecosystems. The significance of regional innovation clusters has already been recognised in Finnish innovation policy but measures to build them have been lacking.
Another internationally significant question is the role of universities in the innovation policy. Hautamäki defends the strong role of universities in the innovation system. The long-term research activities performed by the universities provide a firm basis for innovation activities even though innovations are actually made in enterprises. The university knowledge is transferred to enterprises through open publication activities, the competence of university graduates and cooperation with enterprises. The basic research and instruction are suffering from a lack of resources. The role of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, has been increased while the resources of the Academy of Finland remain relatively scarce. The whole university system should be further developed. The new Universities Act is a step forward but reforms must continue – a fact to which the international innovation system evaluation panel also paid attention.
The book calls for a new kind of leadership based on the principles of sustainable innovation. Leadership in which senior management is committed to societal responsibility is needed. This responsibility is best realised by directing the development investments in creating sustainable innovations. This is simultaneously good business because demand for sustainable solutions promoting well-being is growing rapidly worldwide.
Antti Hautamäki is the Director of the Agora Center at the University of Jyväskylä, who specialises in innovation activities, especially service innovations.
More information
Antti Hautamäki
antti.e.hautamaki@jyu.fi
Tel. +358 50 5639 464
Publication details
Sustainable innovation : a new age of innovation and Finland’s innovation policy
Antti Hautamäki
Helsinki : Sitra
ISBN: 978-951-563-725-3
Sitra Reports series, ISSN 1457-571X ; 87
Orders: please contact Sitra, tel. +358 9 618 991 or mailto:publications@sitra.fi