Regional economic development is a buzzword these days in discussions about our faltering economy. Even more popular is the concept of an innovation economy that somehow U.S. universities will fuel with their brainpower and innovative technology. Both of these critical but slippery goals — regional economic development and an innovation economy — are usually presented in a fuzzy way without solid data or convincing strategies on how we will get from here to there. The consulting firm McKinsey, famed for its creative approach to looking at problems, partnered with the World Economic Forum, crunching large amounts of economic data to find out exactly what essential ingredients are needed to grow and sustain regional innovation hubs. The result is an “Innovation Heat Map” that places cities and countries on a bubble chart that predicts their innovation-based economic future, sort of an “innovation health index.” Working with 700 variables including business environments, government regulation, and the number of patent applications, McKinsey found patterns in the data that may help us better understand why some regions fail and some succeed in developing innovation-based economies.
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Author: Melba Kurman
