From enterprise development to inclusive innovation – A systemic instruments framework for regional innovation support

Abstract

Although the role and importance of innovation support in South Africa is a well-recognised concept on the national level, provincial governments have only recently started to debate, investigate and explore instruments through which innovation can be leveraged and supported regionally. Extant theory and practice is vague on providing support on how to design precise solutions. In this paper we consider the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (WCDEDAT) in South Africa. The goal of the paper is to design and populate a policy-learning framework on the provincial government level. We explore the key functions of the provincial government towards supporting innovation and propose a policy-learning framework extensively exploring possible systems instrument goals and actual instruments/ mechanisms towards performing such functions. We argue that this policy-learning framework could be useful to a wider audience and that it can also serve as a guide for regions at a similar level of development.