New Zealand’s Untapped Potential - The Innovation Agenda
Wednesday, 15 September 2010, 12:30pm to 2:00pm
Speaker: Dr Rick Boven, director, The New Zealand Institute.
This seminar is hosted by the University of Auckland Masters in Public Policy programme and is part of the series, ‘New Zealand: Realising Our Potential’.
Venue: University of Auckland campus: Old Government House, Women’s Federation room. Paid parking is available at the Owen G Glenn Building (12 Grafton Road).
Abstract
Many people in New Zealand share a desire to see the country improve its economic performance and, hence, create more prosperity for all members of our society. But there is less agreement over how that greater economic performance might be achieved. New Zealanders espouse a range of values that some fear could be lost in a quest to significantly improve our economic performance. Less attention appears to be given to the risks associated with maintaining the status quo. In recent years, members of the New Zealand Institute have called for the enhancement of New Zealand’s research and development capabilities. In that view, the national innovation system could do with some major structural adjustments to make it more effective as a generator of knowledge-based products of high value in the global economy. At a less visible level - but just as importantly - significant innovations can be made in production processes across the economy. Such organisational innovation can serve to enhance economic productivity - an area that must be addressed if economic growth is to occur. In this seminar, Dr. Rick Boven will discuss the current research agenda of the New Zealand Institute and answer these questions:
* With respect to promoting export-focused innovation, what should New Zealand be doing to improve its research and development performance?
* With respect to promoting more productivity across the economy, what kind of organisational innovations should New Zealand be pursuing?
* What are the policy implications?
Commentator: Dr Professor Cris Shore, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.
Find out more information about this and other seminars in this series here.