CREATE WV IS A GRASSROOTS BUSINESS AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION BASED ON INNOVATION ECONOMY PRINCIPLES Create West Virginia focuses on economic development of communities through instilling and modeling Innovation Economy principles throughout the culture, based on the five pillars of resilient economies: diversity, effective education, entrepreneurship and business startups, quality of place, and the availability and adoption of technology.
What is an Innovation Economy? Innovation economics is a growing economic theory that emphasizes entrepreneurship and innovation.
How does Create WV assist in developing West Virginia’s Innovation Economy? All our activities align with this vision and mission:
Vision: A West Virginia that is creative, confident, diverse, technologically advanced, and able to compete, collaborate, lead and thrive among the most innovative, dynamic, prosperous, and creative communities in the world.
Mission: To support the development of creative communities, companies, and centers of learning that thrive in the global Innovation Economy.
Strategies for achieving the mission include:
- EDUCATION | TRAINING Sharing Innovation Economy principles, knowledge and resources with local community leaders through conferences, workshops and community gatherings, and encouraging them to incorporate these principles in community growth plans.
- ENTREPRENEURSHIP Developing and launching commercial and social entrepreneurship projects, businesses, and initiatives.
- ADVOCACY Advocating for statewide policies and programs that make it easier to “create West Virginia”
- MARKETING Promoting West Virginia as a great place to live and create.
What’s the role of government in developing the Innovation Economy? In direct support of building the Innovation Economy in West Virginia, Create WV believes state government has a responsibility to improve:
- Support for basic and fundamental scientific research, which is the ultimate wellspring of everything else in ways that nobody can fathom in advance. [Mathematics is the most abstract of the sciences; number theory is the most abstract part of mathematics. Every ATM transaction is secured by a code that comes out of research in that purest branch of mathematics. State funding in support of science and technology is absolutely critical to success.]
- An education system that produces a workforce of people capable of critical decision making, team work, and develops entrepreneurial, risk-taking capacity.
- A system in which people can contract freely, in which there is the rule of law, but which is streamlined and free of unnecessary paperwork, forms, and restrictions. How long does it take to start a new business? What kinds of barriers do people encounter who want to start new businesses?
- Policies that allow recruitment of educated, skilled immigrants who create businesses and their own jobs.
Why focus on creating an Innovation Economy? It works.
Empirical evidence worldwide points to a positive link between technological innovation and economic performance. Germany’s burgeoning biotech industry results from government R&D subsidies to joint projects, network partners, and close cognitive distance of collaborative partners within industry clusters. These factors increased patent performance in the biotech industry. Innovation capacity explains much of the GDP growth in India and China between 1981–2004 but especially in the 1990s. Their development of a National Innovation System through heavy investment of R&D expenditures and personnel, patents, and high-tech/service exports strengthened their innovation capacity. By linking the science sector with the business sector, establishing incentives for innovative activities, and balancing the import of technology and indigenous R&D effort, China and India experienced rapid economic growth in recent decades.
Nations smaller than the State of West Virginia have successfully harnessed Innovation Economy principles as a growth strategy. In the United States, the Council of Foreign Relations asserted that since the end of the 1970s, our country has gained a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth through our aggressive pursuit of technological change. Innovation contributes to steady economic growth and rise in per capita income.
Create WV wants the state to legitimately, aggressively compete for a share of this. Join us.
wealth. And together, we can do this.
#InnovationEconomy #roleofgovernment #education #entrepreneurship #advocacy