Soutenir l'innovation dans la peripherie le cas du soutien a l'innovation maritime au Quebec maritime

This thesis focuses on innovation support in peripheral regions. It analyses how public policies and publicly-funded innovation support organizations contribute (or not) to regional innovation development, within a specific industry (the maritime industry) and a specific peripheral region (Quebec's coastal region). This thesis seeks to answer three questions: i) How do innovation support organizations contribute to innovation development and learning in a specific industry and a specific peripheral region? ii) How well have these organizations fulfilled (or not) public policy objectives? iii) Is the distinction between an analytic and synthetic knowledge base relevant for the analysis and planning of innovation support in the periphery?;In order to answer these questions, this thesis adopts a unique approach to data gathered through a research project titled "Maritime cluster and territorial innovation in Quebec's coastal region", led by Pr Doloreux. This data set surveys 18 organisations located in Quebec's coastal region offering innovation support services to regional maritime firms.;Three papers comprise the core of this thesis. The first analyzes and discusses the . role of federal and provincial policy in the emergence and evolution of development projects aimed at creating a maritime cluster in Quebec's coastal region. The second explores how public organizations in peripheral regions contribute to regional innovation development and discusses how these organizations have fulfilled (or not) public policy objectives. The third analyses the characteristics of innovation support services according to the knowledge base type of supported maritime industries.;This thesis treats four key themes related to innovation support: the role of innovation support organizations, the role of public policy, the dynamics of innovation support in the periphery, and innovation support in industries characterized by multiple knowledge bases.;Regarding the role of innovation support organizations, this thesis concludes that while support organizations may offer a vast array of innovation support services, there is little regional demand for these services. This situation limits the impact of support organizations and their related knowledge infrastructure within the regional innovation system (RIS). Factors explaining this lack of regional demand vary from one industrial sector to another, and depend on the type of role adopted by the regional knowledge infrastructure.;As for the relationship between public policy and innovation support organizations, results indicate that policies implemented since 1998 in Quebec's coastal region to foster the emergence of a maritime cluster have contributed to enhance the regional knowledge infrastructure. More precisely, these policies have mainly fostered the development of new technology transfer organizations in the sectors of marine technologies and marine biotechnologies, sectors where regional industry is traditionally weak. In doing so, policymakers hoped that the presence of dynamic, world-class innovation support organizations would start a chain reaction leading to the development of new maritime firms within the region. The analysis indicates that this regional chain reaction has not happened. This may be due to the fact that these organizations create primarily analytic knowledge, a type of knowledge that can be easily transferred across long distances and is not necessarily captured within the region.;In regards to supporting innovation in the periphery, this thesis indicates that the RIS and cluster framework demonstrates severe limitations in the analysis and planning of innovation development in peripheral regions. These limitations are potentially related to model design, as the RIS and cluster framework employs concepts associated with density to explain innovation development, and density is not a key structural feature of peripheral regions. New models, in which density is not an explanatory factor, are required to better understand how innovation development can be fostered in the periphery.;Keywords : Innovation support, periphery, knowledge base, innovation support organization, public policy, cluster, regional innovation system, innovation support organizations, regional knowledge infrastructure, Quebec coastal region, maritime industry.