1. From Exception to
Rule:
Advancing the Role of Women in
Regional Innovation Ecosystems
Josephine McMurray, PhD,
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University
PDW: Women Founders in Regional Innovation Ecosystems: Lessons from Latin America, Canada
and Germany
August 5, 2017
Academy of Management Annual Conference
2. Acknowledgements
The researchers gratefully acknowledge the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council for their support
through Connection Grant 611-2016 0546.
The following organizations also generously provided support:
4. Population is around 35
million
English & French are official
languages
2nd largest country (3.9MM
sq miles)
9th most sparsely populated
20% of the world’s fresh
water
Facts about Canada, eh
5. Parliamentary democracy, a
federation and a
constitutional monarchy
Pro-feminist Prime Minister
Gender-balanced cabinet
Federal budget gender-
audited
Feminist international
assistance policy
Leadership
6. • Canada is 2nd only to the US
in share of working age
population who is an
entrepreneur or works for
one
• Between 2003-12 no
growth in billion-dollar
revenue tech firms
Yet we struggle
7. • Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative program: $400M
available to augment private sector funding of late-stage
venture capital
• Strategic Procurement: federal departments and agencies
funded to procure goods and services from Canadian
innovators and entrepreneurs
• Intellectual Property Strategy 2017: modernize intellectual
property strategy
• Streamlining Immigration: attract top talent to Canada
• Creation of Superclusters: A commitment of $950 million
over five years
2017 Federal Budget
11. Self-employed women
in Canada
87% increase in self-
employed women from
541,000 in 1988 to 1,013,000
in 2017
Women made up 43.9% of
the self-employed labour
market in 1988 and 57.7% in
2016 – growth of just 13.8%
in 28 years
Statscan, 2014
12. 25-34 year old university
graduates with non-
STEM degree = 66%
25-34 year old university
graduates with STEM
degree = 39%
Most women in STEM
choose biology or
science
Upstream – women are
underrepresented in STEM
Statscan, 2011
14. Women Entrepreneurs, Innovators, & Regional
Ecosystem Development
• International consortium of researchers
• Focus:
– “Female Underperformance” hypothesis - size, slower growth and
lower profitability of women’s businesses (DuRietz and Henrekson, 2000) –
– Less studied - the notion of innovation as similarly gendered (Alsos,
Ljunggren, & Hytti, 2012)
– Implications for our understanding and development of effective,
inclusive and accessible regional support for innovative activities and
entrepreneurship.
[sectoral focus: health and agetech innovation]
15. Women Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and
Regional Ecosystem Development
Symposium held in
Kitchener-Waterloo,
Canada, June 15-16, 2017
18. Semantics
• Innovation - generation of new products, services & processes
• Entrepreneurship - identification of opportunity in society for
such products and services, and the exploitation of that
opportunity through the organization of resources with which to
make those products or services available (Mitra, 2012)
• Entrepreneurial ecosystem - set of interdependent actors and
factors coordinated in such a way that they enable productive
entrepreneurship (Stam, 2015)
19. Regional innovation ecosystem
Complex geographic relationship of actors or entities to
enable technology development and innovation
Quintuple helices of government, industry, universities,
civil society, in the context of the natural & built
environment (Carayannis & Rakhmatullin, 2014)
Driven by research, and the commercial economy (Jackson,
2015)
20. Asheim, B. T., Smith, H. L., & Oughton, C. (2011). Regional innovation systems: Theory, empirics and
policy. Regional Studies, 45(7), 875–891. http://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2011.596701
21. The regional perspective
Innovation ecosystems can successfully drive innovation in
local areas (Capello 2013; Leydesdorff and Strand 2013; Pyka and Janiszewski 2014)
Regional innovation systems can provide more agile
reactions to shifting technology and market conditions (Wolfe,
2009)
There is no “one size fits all” approach as innovation
processes are strongly shaped by their specific knowledge
base and regional context (Asheim & Coenen, 2005)
Historical, physical, institutional, cultural, socio-psychological
factors influence regional attractiveness for innovation (Mitra,
2012)
27. • 90 insights & possible research questions
• Day 1 – General issues
Questions Mean Min Max Std
Deviation
Var Ct
How do we empower under represented women without
isolating them?
6.44 1 7 1.5 2.25 16
How do we address the issue of gender bias with people who
deny its existence?
6.06 1 7 1.6 2.56 16
What are the subtle lessons girls receive/observe that affects
later career decisions?
6 4 7 1.04 1.09 11
Culture within which we operate affects our perspectives but
we can't see this (fish in water)
5.93 4 7 1 1 15
What support do women want/ need to thrive in innovation? 5.92 3 7 1.54 2.38 13
How do we challenge or change gendered processes in
ecosystems?
5.57 4 7 1.18 1.39 14
Have women tell their success stories 5.56 1 7 1.66 2.75 16
Women influence many generations with narratives and
history of innovation and entrepreneurship
5.53 1 7 1.63 2.65 15
Preliminary findings
28. • Day 2 – Issues related to health & agetech
Questions Max Mean Std
Dev.
Var. Count
How do we bridge the gap between research, commercialization
and government (creating better alignment, real world impact and
incentives).
2 7 6.32 1.22 1.48 19
What are the top challenges facing health care product innovators
getting to market?
5 7 6.24 0.87 0.75 21
How do we close the salary gap between men and women? 4 7 6.1 1.06 1.13 21
Can women help other women who want to innovate? 4 7 5.93 1.06 1.13 15
How to make growth and societal impact metrics of performance
that are valued as much as $$$?
4 7 5.89 1.17 1.36 19
How can the potential to create social values, health, well-being,
health and life-affirming aging (life quality) be activated
(disruption)?
4 7 5.89 1.17 1.36 19
How can women assume leadership roles in creating community
hubs (especially as this is a new area with lots of potential to shape
it)?
3 7 5.88 1.28 1.63 17
Relevance of creating hubs to access a care system 3 7 5.86 1.25 1.57 22
What local policies and practices are required to assist women
entrepreneurs to thrive in the local innovation ecosystem?
4 7 5.8 1.21 1.46 20
Preliminary findings
29. “I think almost everything centers around
what does the innovation process look like for
women and how is it resourced.”
How do we understand a women’s perspective?
30. “How can we increase the visibility of women
entrepreneurship to the masses? How do we
utilize social media to make this ... Maybe this
is my millennial thinking, but how do we make
it go viral, right?”
Is it about marketing?
31. “what are our best practices in different
countries, let's look at them”
Are there global solutions?
32. “I was very much thinking that …incubators
are just neutral, but they are not, so for me
that is kind of an eye-opener, … how can we
challenge or change this type of process in
ecosystems and incubators?”
”
How do we change the current dynamic?
33. • Entrepreneurs (& researchers) need to better understand local
ecosystems for path determination
• Regional and sectoral ecosystems are heterogeneous and…so
are the needs of women innovators & entrepreneurs
• Gendered perspective is not integrated into policy/programs
• Education and training on innovation & entrepreneurship would
benefit from a[n early] gendered perspective
• Intersectionality complicates understanding what works -
government, industry, universities, civil society, socio-cultural
norms & “place”
• How do we measure success?
Preliminary Discussion
34. Discussion Question
What are the three most important factors, that
if changed, would substantially increase the
number of women innovators/entrepreneurs in
YOUR region?
