How is innovation supported and engaged?
Many of the public scandals we have seen in Canada include some inappropriate or flawed collaboration among public, private and non-profit sectors. One example was the WE Charity scandal, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was accused of preferring WE Charity to administer a very large employment grant during COVID over other possible candidates because this charity had paid for his family members to speak. While the ethics commissioner ultimately decided that Trudeau did not violate any of the rules, Bill Morneau, the Finance Minister was found to have broke a number of conflict of interest rules. On the other hand, WE Charity was selected by members of the public service because it had a reputation for being an extremely innovative and effective organization at engaging youth in employment.
Ought we scrutinize our governments to this extent when such decisions are made in the private sector with little fanfare? Would the government be better off just providing tax breaks in the hopes that the market would create jobs on their own? How can governments best support innovation in communities or the market?
Reading: Leonidou, E. Christofi, M., Vrontis D., & Thrassou, A. (2018). An intergrative framework of stakeholder engagement for innovation management and entre
Arundel, A., Bloch, C. & Ferguson, B. (2019). Advancing innovation in the public sector: Aligning innovation measurement with policy goals. Research P
Stakeholders involvement in establishing sustainable business models. British Food Journal.
