Innovation and the Management of Human Resources
CPROST Report #00-03 1
Innovation and the Management of Human Resources
CPROST Report # 00-03
Holbrook, J.A.D. & Hughes, L.P.
Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology
Simon Fraser University at Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3
Introduction
There is often a perception that the primary objective of science and technology (S&T) policy is the
further development of industries in the manufacturing sector. Governments in most jurisdictions
support, in one way or another, S&T programs in the firm belief that investments in S&T have a
positive, if indefinable, effect on economic growth. Economic growth is widely assumed to be a social
benefit, and that growth in knowledge and technological inputs must inevitably result in social
progress. While virtually all studies of innovation have focussed on their economic impacts,
innovations have impacts on society and the development of human capital which are at least as
important as their economic impacts. Policy-makers need to consider the application of S&T, to and
the role of technological innovation of, in the development of human capital at the firm level.
Studies of innovation in Canada have been carried out at the national level, but because of the
preponderance of industrial activity in Ontario and Quebec, the results understandably reflect the
characteristics of these manufacturing based provinces. (See for example Baldwin & Da Pont, 1996;
Innovation and the Management of Human Resources
CPROST Report #00-03 2
Baldwin et al, 1994). There have also been studies of regional industrial clusters (or “poles”) and
comparisons of regional, or sub-national, innovative performance. A recent review of this subject, in
the Canadian context, has been published by de la Mothe and others in “Local and Regional
Systems of Innovation” (de la Mothe and Paquet 1998). These regional clusters are the building
blocks of the Canadian national system of innovation. But in the knowledge-based economy, where
knowledge, embedded in the training of the human capital of the innovative firm is the primary
resource for the innovative firms, what is the relationship between the innovative behavior of the firm
and the way it manages its human resources?
Survey Methodology
A short questionnaire for use with BC enterprises has been developed by the authors. The overall results
have been reported by Holbrook and Hughes. (Holbrook and Hughes 1998) The questionnaire was not
intended to cover all aspects of technological innovation identified in the OECD “Oslo Manual” (OECD
1997) but it had to conform to the main points in the OECD standard. To ensure a reasonable response
rate, the questionnaire was short (no more than one page, printed on both sides) so that it would be user
friendly, take little managerial time to complete, be comprehensible to a small technology-based
entrepreneur based in BC, and be faxable to expedite its return.
A similar survey covering the Okanagan region of BC, a non-metropolitan area dependent mainly on
agriculture and resource extraction, was conducted in July, 1997 (Holbrook, et al. 1999). For the
Okanagan phase of the project, the questionnaire was modified from the version used for the Lower
Mainland. Some of the modifications were the result of conclusions drawn from the analysis of the
Lower Mainland responses; others were added to provide additional information on knowledge
management and highly qualified personnel.
The samples in both surveys were drawn from two industrial sectoral groups, “high technology” and
“policy sectors”. Firms were selected in eight industrial sectors from the two groups: high tech
(manufactured products, computer services, and technical services) and policy sectors (food
products, forest products, electrical products, construction, and transportation). To be included in the
sample, a firm had to employ at least five people, and have been in operation for at least five years.
This criteria was applied based on the assumption that smaller, newer firms are still in the process of
stabilizing, and are likely to be quite transient. It is commonly thought that much innovation occurs in
this entrepreneurial environment, the so-called “bleeding edge”. These surveys was primarily
interested in the characteristics of successful innovators. Given that the majority of new ventures fail
within the first five years, firms that survived the first five years are more likely to be the successful
innovators.
From this survey of innovation of enterprises in four sectors, it was possible to select questions that
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